


MacGyver Shorts

by katikat



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-04-26 08:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 43
Words: 19,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14398089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/pseuds/katikat
Summary: I have many ideas for tiny slivers of scenes, barely two or three hundred words long and with no bigger bunny to attach them to. So, I’ll just put them all in one file, under MacGyver Shorts. ‘Cause I need to get them out of my head! Hmpf! (Unbeta'd)Discontinued.





	1. The One With Carlos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mac and Carlos at the end of their basic training.

They’re sitting on the front steps of their barrack, lazily enjoying the warmth of the setting sun and the peace and quiet at the end of yet another hectic day.

Carlos leans back, propping himself up on his elbows, and glances at Mac. “I hear the Sarge took you aside today. What was that about? Please,  _please_ , don’t tell me you tried to correct his math again?”

Chuckling, Mac shakes his head. “No,” he replies, then he turns a little more serious. “They offered me a placement with the EOD.”

Frowning, Carlos asks in disbelief, “With the bomb squad?”

Mac nods, looping his arms around his bent knees. “Yeah.”

“The bomb squad?” Carlos repeats, still in disbelief. “No, seriously, Mac,  _the bomb squad_? Nobody’s clamoring for  _that_ position - and for a good reason, too! That shit’s dangerous.”

Laughing, Mac throws him a dry look. “Like being a Green Beret is so much safer.”

“Well, I’ll get shot at - _you_ will get shot at while trying not to get yourself _blown up_ , too!” Carlos points out reasonably. When Mac just laughs again, Carlos adds more softly, imploringly, “You sure about this,  _hermano_?”

Mac shrugs. “It seems like a good fit. I don’t like guns, you know that, and this will actually allow me to do what I enlisted for: save lives, those of civilians and soldiers, too.” He glances at Carlos with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Even the Green Berets', if it comes to that.”

Now it’s Carlos’ turn to laugh. “Okay, fine,” he says, and shifting his weight, he reaches out to pat Mac on the back. “If you’re sure about this, then good luck. But _don’t_ get yourself blown up, that would make me very cross with you.”

Smiling, Mac nods and squints into the fading sunlight. “I’ll do my best, promise.”


	2. The One Where Riley Asks for Help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We know that between eps 101 and 110, Riley learned how to pick a lock from Mac…

Riley’s used to being denied, it’s what life is. It sucks but she learned to deal, it’s why she became a hacker, after all, so that she would never have to ask again, for  _anything_. But now she’s about to.

She finds Mac in the lab, nose buried in Sparky’s entrails. “You got a minute?” she asks.

He looks up, peering at her through the heavy-set magnifying lenses that make him look like a mad scientist. “Sure. What’s up?” he replies before going back to his tinkering.

Shuffling from foot to foot, hands stuck in her back pockets, Riley clears her throat and says reluctantly, “Would you, uh, would you teach me how to pick a lock?”

Mac straightens up, and pushing his lenses up onto his forehead, he gives her his full attention. Sparky turns his head in her direction, too; Riley could swear the robot’s judging her.

“Pick a lock?” Mac says a little startled.

Riley shrugs. “I just thought it might be, you know, a useful skill, considering…” she responds, making it sound like it’s no big deal. Because it isn’t.  _Really_.

Mac blinks at her and Riley’s sure he’s about to say no because he’s too busy, because she doesn’t need to know how to do that, because–

“Of course!” Mac says, smiling brightly. “And you’re right, it really  _is_ a useful skill. Especially when you lock yourself out,” he adds a little mischievously.

Genuinely surprised by his agreement, Riley laughs.

Mac pauses, looking down at the robot then at the tiny tools in his hands. “Uh… give me half an hour to finish this?”

“Sure,” Riley says, slowly backing away towards the door. “No rush.”

“Great! See you in half an hour, then,” Mac replies, pulling his lenses back down.

Such a small thing, asking for help and actually  _receiving_ it, Riley thinks as she leaves the lab. And yet, it makes her smile.


	3. The One Where Mac Makes a Decision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set directly before episode 222. Mac makes a decision regarding the search for his dad.

“You okay?”

Jack’s question is soft and concerned and Mac realizes he’s been sitting there, in Jack’s car that’s quietly rumbling away in front of his house, for a while now, staring down at his father’s watch instead of getting out and allowing them both to go home and get some rest.

He looks over at Jack who’s watching him with worried eyes. “Yeah, sorry about that,” he says, reaching for the door handle. But then he pauses and turns back. “And… sorry about what happened, back on the mission.”

Mac’s distraction, his foggy brain, tired from hours and hours of research into his father’s whereabouts that he did the night before instead of sleeping, almost got them both killed. It was quite a chilling wake-up call.

Jack shrugs matter-of-factly. “Hey, that’s what you have me for, right? To watch your back?”

And now Mac doesn’t feel just guilty but downright ashamed. He doesn’t know how to respond to Jack’s generosity.

Breaking the awkward silence that settled over them, Jack asks cheerfully, “We still up for the racetrack tomorrow morning?” And when Mac nods, he continues, “Man, this is a dream coming true! You can’t even imagine what that means to me.”

Well, Mac  _can_. When his friend called him and invited him to the racetrack, Mac knew it would be the perfect gift for Jack. The perfect apology for being so off his game lately.

When Mac gets out and closes the door - with only a soft click, it’s Jack’s pride and joy, after all - Jack calls after him, “I’ll pick you up at 7 sharp. So, get some actual sleep, you  _doofus_!”

Mac gives him a thumb up, then he watches as Jack backs out of the driveway and onto the street. When the brake lights disappear down the block, Mac turns and hoisting up his duffle, he walks inside.

Bozer’s already asleep, so he tries to be as quiet as possible. He doesn’t eat anything, too tired for that, he only takes a quick shower and before long, he’s at his computer again, his research spread across the screen.

And as he sits there, staring at the files, eyes burning and head aching, in his mind’s eye he once again sees himself and Jack almost dying at the hands of wannabe terrorists - and he comes to the realization that it needs to stop. At some point, his search for his father turned into an obsession and today, it almost cost both him and Jack their lives.

This…  _madness_ needs to stop.  _Now._

So, with his jaw set and anger bubbling inside him - anger at himself, at his father, at the  _stupidity_ of it all - Mac closes the files, and with only the slightest hesitation, he hits DELETE.

He needs to let it go. Before he kills them all.

With a deep, resigned sigh, Mac powers down his computer, turns off the light - and goes to bed.


	4. The One Where Mac’s Appalled by the Cruelty of Men

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from ep 220. Mac’s still appalled by how cruel people can be. Jack’s glad of it.

“Alright, what’s up?” Jack asks, huffing a little.

Mac’s been quiet ever since they set off from his house in Jack’s car, staring out of the window with a pensive look on his face. Now, he turns to Jack and smiles a little. But it’s a wan smile, so unlike him that Jack just  _knows_ that something’s off. 

“Nothing, really,” Mac assures him.

Jack frowns, a little annoyed now, and grumbles, “Dude,  _seriously_!” 

Sighing, Mac shakes his head. “I just–” He pauses, then tries again. “Looking for Charles Pfeffer, I had to go through so many files and photos from the holocaust museum’s archives and–” His voice falters, and when he looks at Jack again, he seems rather…  _lost_. “There were  _so many_ horrible things, so many  _tragedies_ documented in those files, Jack. How can-how can people be so  _cruel_ to one another?  _Why_?”

Jack’s expression softens.  _Only Mac_. The kid was a soldier, and with the bomb squad, too, he saw people at their worst back in Afghanistan, in a war zone, he saw them shot, blown to pieces, starving - and yet, he hasn’t become jaded, he hasn’t lost the ability to be appalled by the cruelty of men.

Jack shakes his head and replies truthfully, “I don’t know, buddy. I really don’t. But I’m glad you still have it in you to ask this question.”

After a short pause, Mac mumbles, staring straight out through the windshield, “Yeah, well, if I ever  _stop_ asking it, it’ll be time to get out of this business.”

Glancing at Mac, Jack agrees. And he hopes it never happens. Not because of their damn job, no, but because he doesn’t want Mac to lose this-this  _essential goodness_ that makes him, well,  _him_. 

Because Jack knows that, if it ever came to that, the world would be a much,  _much_ poorer place for it.


	5. The One Where the Balloons Go Pop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from ep 219. Riley talks to sheep and Jack sits in an anthill. Sorta. Actually, Mac’s really shaken and Jack feels like a heel.

It’s been a good fifteen minutes since they dropped out of the sky and  _bounce-bounce-bounced_ to a halt, the rest of the colorful balloons holding them up going  _pop-pop-pop_ like firecrackers on New Year’s Eve in the branches of the only tree in the whole meadow. Riley scampered off, then, to beg a cell phone signal of a sheep or something - and Mac still hasn’t moved yet.

And Jack now feels really bad about making fun of Mac’s fear of heights; he can see the kid’s still trembling slightly as he lies there, on his back on the downed trampoline, the heels of his palms pressed to his eyes. And even though Jack’s seen Mac afraid, he’s never seen him  _this_ terrified before and… yeah, that’s not funny anymore.

So, Jack sits there with Mac, waiting him out, arms looped around bent knees, and when Mac finally stirs, taking a deep breath and dropping his hands, Jack says softly, “Sorry about making fun of you, before. I mean, I  _knew_ you were afraid of heights, I just…” He glances down at Mac. “I didn’t realize it was  _that_ bad.”

Staring up at the blue sky, Mac replies hoarsely, “Usually, it’s not. When I jump out of a plane or-or something like that, I have the situation under control, or at least I have some plan, but this time–” He cuts himself off, swallowing hard. “I was so afraid I couldn’t  _think_ , Jack.”

Jack reaches down to pat Mac on the thigh. “It’s okay, buddy.”

But Mac shakes his head. “It’s not! I got us into that mess - and I couldn’t get us out again. My brain just didn’t work. All I could think of was how afraid I was and that, in turn, made thinking even harder. It was a vicious loop that I couldn’t get out of!”

Jack’s heart aches, hearing the self-recrimination in Mac’s voice, knowing the kid’s always too hard on himself, much harder than on anyone else. And so he says in a kind, soothing voice, “Listen. No one expects you to know  _everything_ and solve  _every_ situation, no matter what we say. We’re a team. Let us pull our weight, too, alright?”

Sighing, Mac sits up. “Still, I should’ve been–”

“What?” Jack jumps in. “ _Perfect_? Yeah, well, welcome to the club of us  _imperfect humans,_ then. Make yourself at home. We have cookies,” he adds to lighten up the mood and waggles his eyebrows. And it’s a win because Mac laughs.

Then Riley’s calling their names from across the meadow, telling them she reached the HQ and Matty’s sending a chopper to pick them up. How she managed that, Jack will never know. Must’ve been the sheep.

And Jack jumps to his feet and reaches down to help Mac up, saying, “Come on, let’s go. I think we must’ve landed in an anthill or something because the crawly beasts are  _everywhere_. Did you know they can actually eat a man alive?”


	6. The One Where Murder Is Not Appreciated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coda to MacGyver, episode 223. Mac receives a phone call from his favorite stalker.

“I heard you quit.”

Those are the first words that Mac hears when he picks up his phone. His heart skips a beat when he recognizes the voice.  _Murdoc_.

“So… I guess your ‘daddy issues’ finally came to a head, huh?”

Gritting his teeth, Mac asks harshly, “You knew?”

There’s a laugh on the other side of the line, low and resembling a cat’s purr. “Oh, my dear Angus,  _of course_  I knew. I prefer to know  _everything_ about my intended targets, especially about the more…  _intriguing_ ones.”

Mac squeezes his eyes shut. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

A sigh. “Would you’ve believed me? Really?”

“Probably,” Mac admits honestly. He’s tired of lies.

A pause, then a soft, “Interesting.”

Suddenly, Mac feels exhausted. He knows he should probably contant the foundation and tell them about the phone call but… he just can’t be bothered. They wouldn’t catch Murdoc anyway.

“What do you want, Murdoc?” he whispers instead, sinking down onto the edge of his bed, next to his half-packed bag.

“I want to make you an offer,” Murdoc replies almost…  _sympathetically_. It’s very creepy.

“What offer?” Mac asks, rubbing his forehead. He really doesn’t feel like playing games.

“I’ll kill him for you, your father. Just say the word.”

It’s stated so casually that it takes Mac a moment to realize what Murdoc just said. Then his blood freezes in his veins and his eyes snap open. “Stay away from him, you hear me?”

Another sigh. “Oh, you and your  _bleeding heart_. It’ll be the death of you one day.”

“I  _mean_ it!” Mac snaps.

“Alright,  _alright_. But killing your own father truly  _is_ cathartic. Even when it’s just a murder by proxy,” Murdoc adds almost teasingly.

Mac balls his free hand into a fist and shuts his eyes again.  _Christ…_

But before he can come up with a proper response - Murdoc always knows how to render him speechless - the man continues, “You look tired, Angus. Do take a nap before your trip or you might wrap your car around a tree. And what a waste that would be…”

Eyes flying wide open, Mac shoots up from his bed and looks around frantically, as Murdoc hangs up with a low, amused chuckle.

There’s no one around.


	7. The One Where Nothing Is Actually Mac’s (So It Seems)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coda to MacGyver, episode 223. Did Mac achieve anything, anything at all, on his own?

Mac kills the engine and then he sits there, in his jeep, staring out through the windshield at his house.

His house that belonged to _his grandfather_.

His career that  _his father_  set up for him, pulling strings from behind the curtain, “nudging him in the right direction,” as he called it, for years.

Nothing is really his, so it seems to Mac. Even his meeting with Jack was pre-arranged. Did he achieve anything, anything at all, on his own? Would he have made it  _this far_  without his father’s influence?

Mac doesn’t know. And that was one of the reasons why he quit. His inability to trust the man who used to be his father a long time ago being the second. What a strange thing to say, that he doesn’t trust his own parent. But the truth is, he doesn’t know the man anymore. Maybe he never knew him. And he’s not sure if he wants to get to know him now. So he quit.

And now, as he sits here, his mind’s blank and his heart’s empty. Not even when he dropped out of MIT did he feel this…  _hollow._  Back then, he had a purpose. Now… all he wants is to get away from the pieces of his life that belonged to other people.

He picks up his phone and without thinking about it, he dials a number. “Travis?” he says when his friend picks up. “Does your offer still stand? To come and pit for you?”

Maybe he won’t get to save the world every day, working on the racetrack, but that’s okay. Right now, all he needs is some peace and quiet - as much peace and quiet as he can get on a  _racetrack_ \- to gather his thoughts and figure out what to do next. Somewhere that’s  _not here_.

“Great! I can be there tomorrow. See ya then,” Mac says and hangs up.

He doesn’t bother telling anyone where he’s headed. What would be the point?


	8. The One Where James Sets Up a Fateful Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MacGyver, ep 223 spoilers. How did Mac and Jack actually meet?

James spent the last two weeks in South America, in the jungle there and off the grid, using his supposed vacation to try and hunt down Jonah Walsh. In vain, of course. And now, having come back home empty-handed, frustrated and angry, the first thing he sees when he opens his computer is a message from his handler, Matilda Webber, flagged as URGENT.

Knowing that Webber never flags  _anything_ as urgent unless it actually  _is_  urgent, James opens her message without any further delay, seeing as it was sent the day after he went dark. Its content chills him to the bone.

Alfred Pena, his son’s, Angus’, EOD mentor and CO in Afghanistan, was killed trying to defuse an IED set up by none other than the infamous Ghost himself. And from what James gathers, it was just dumb luck that it was Pena and not Angus who entered the house and got killed by the bomb.

Dumb luck…  _Christ!_

Swallowing down his anger, James starts typing, his fingers flying lightning fast across the keyboard. He is  _not_ about to rely on luck again, not when it comes to the safety of his son. 

It’s time James set his plan in motion, the one he’s been working on ever since Angus joined the EOD unit in Afghanistan. It’s time he started nudging his son in the right direction, to where he wants him to be once his tour overseas is over.

Adding his signature to the transfer request for Angus MacGyver, James clicks send, his anger now firmly replaced with a sense of satisfaction.

It’s time his son met Jack Dalton.


	9. The One Where Fences Are Mended

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coda to MacGyver, episode 223. When he called her to tell her that he quit, she invited him over to Australia.

Mac drives the last nail in, then he lets his arms hang over the sturdy fence, hammer dangling from his hand, and takes a deep breath.

“Tired already?” comes the amused question from behind him, and when he turns, he sees Cage, sweaty and dust-covered but most importantly  _healthy_ again, taking a deep gulp from a canteen.

When he called her to tell her that he quit, to let her know, just in case she needed him, that he wasn’t an agent anymore, she invited him over to Australia, to her sister’s farm, offered him a place to think about…  _life_ , he guesses. And he accepted because he missed her, her wise insights and her ability to view things differently than him.

Laughing, Mac shakes his head. “No, it just suddenly hit me why you liked it here so much. And why you decided not to go back. It’s so peaceful and quiet, so  _vast_ … It puts everything into perspective, doesn’t it?”

She comes over, in her jeans and boots and a jacket, hair in a loose bun, and leans against the fence next to him. “It really does. At first, I just wanted a safe place to recuperate, but then…” Shaking her head, she looks into the distance. “It’s been so long since I actually lived in Australia instead of just… just  _passing through_ on my way to some war ravaged country, on the trail of a terrorist or a hired killer. Being back home, it made me realize that maybe, just  _maybe_ , I’ve done enough. Maybe it was time to rest.”

For a long moment, Mac stares into the distance, too, and they just stand there, two people in the middle of nowhere. Then he says, “I’m not sure I’m there yet, ready to let it all go. All I do know is that I’m really tired of lies.”

Cage nods. She knows because he told her what happened. And she told him her real name in return, removing yet another lie from his life. It surprised him, that he’s only ever known her under an alias, but when she explained it to him, the reason behind it, he understood. And he took her confession for what it was: the cornerstone of a deeper trust and an even closer friendship.

Still, she’ll always be  _Cage_ to him.

Done talking for now, Mac turns to her with a smile. “Back to work?”

Smiling back, Cage says, “Well, the fence won’t mend itself.” And then, pulling on her gloves, she goes to grab another board from the back of her beaten up truck.

Pushing off the fence, Mac fishes out another nail from the pouch at his belt and swings his hammer again, letting all his worries and fears go. There’ll be time to think about the future later.


	10. The One With the Affronted Wookiee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another missing scene from ep 209. Why wasn’t Jack there when Mac woke up?

When he wakes up for the third time, Jack’s still there, sprawled in the rather uncomfortable looking chair, head thrown back, and lightly snoring. It makes Mac smile.

Slowly, carefully, mindful of his wounded leg and the IV stuck in his hand, he turns onto his side and whispers, “Jack. Hey, Jack, wake up.”

Jack snorts and smacks his lips sleepily, then he shoots up, looking around, wild-eyed. “I wasn’t sleeping!” he insists.

Mac chuckles softly. “Why don’t you go home?” he suggests.

Rubbing his eyes and stretching - his spine makes very,  _very_ unhappy noises - Jack yawns. “I’m  _fine_. Just  _great_. As good as  _new_.”

Mac’s about to respond when another wave of cramps hits him, his insides seizing, making it impossible for him to draw air into his lungs. He grits his teeth and squeezes his eyes shut, fingers clenched hard into his blanket.  _God, it hurts!_

This time, the seizure lasts maybe half a minute, it’s much shorter than the last one. It seems the treatment’s working. Still, he knows enough about the nerve gas and its effects to realize that it’s far from over. That he’s still in for a lot of pain and misery.

When he opens his eyes, sweaty and trembling, he notices Jack watching him. “I’m okay,” he croaks out.

Jack twists his mouth unhappily. “ _Sure_ you are, buddy.”

Mac sighs and rubs his cheek against his pillow. “Look, Jack, not that I don’t appreciate you being here because I do, I really do. But there’s nothing you can do here and this” –he lifts his hand with the IV needle stuck in the back of it– “will take a while. Why don’t you go home, take a shower, shave–”

“Hey!” Jack cuts him off in mock offense. “Are you trying to tell me something here?”

Smiling, Mac admits, “You are starting to resemble a Wookiee.”

Jack imitates an affronted Wookiee cry in response, just like expected.

Mac chuckles. And then, still smiling softly, he says, “Seriously, Jack. You’ve been here the whole day. Probably longer, my time perception’s a bit screwed. I’m okay. Alright, I  _will_ be okay,  _eventually_ ,” he amends, seeing Jack’s disbelieving look. “Go home.  _Please_.”

Jack stares at him for a long moment, his eyes are very intense, all-seeing, his face set to hide a storm of emotions, Mac knows, so he nods encouragingly.

Deflating little, Jack sighs. “Fine, alright. I  _could_ use a shave,” he allows, rubbing his chin, then he sniffs at his armpit and makes a face. “And  _probably_ a shower, too. Just–” He clenches his jaw a little before he continues. “Promise me you’ll be alright?”

Mac nods. “I promise,” he says quietly, a fond smile on his lips.

“Okay,” Jack agrees reluctantly and gets up, patting Mac on the knee on his way out. “I’ll be back in the morning.”

Following him out with his eyes, Mac calls after him, “And bring me a burger!”

“You wish! Jello for you, you…  _limp noodle_!”

Mac laughs.


	11. The One Where Bozer’s Advised to Drive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why doesn’t Jack - or pretty much anybody - let Mac drive?

“… And another thing,” Jack says, adding yet another item to the growing list of things one apparently needs to know to work with Angus MacGyver, Field Agent. “If at all possible,  _don’t let him drive_.”

Bozer frowns. “But why? Mac’s a good driver, I’ve driven with him many times.”

“Oh, he’s an  _excellent_ driver,” Jack allows. “It has nothing to do with his driving skills and everything with how that magic melon of his works. It’s one thing when you go out for a pizza, Boze, it’s another thing  _entirely_ when you’re out there” –he waves his hand, encompassing the whole wide world– “and you want him to find an on-the-fly solution in a life-or-death situation. He can barely  _talk_ while he’s doing that-that  _mad scientist magic_ of his, let alone  _drive_.

“So,” Jack says, leaning forward to emphasize his point. “If there’s any chance,  _any chance at all_ , he might need to kick that steam engine of his brain into high gear? Do  _not_ let him behind the wheel, understood?” 

Then Jack pauses for a second, and shaking his head, he amends, “You know what? Since it’s all he does, all the time,  _thinking_ \- don’t let him drive,  _period_! He might insist he can do both but he can’t, trust me on this. He can’t.  _I know_!”

Bozer nods, very serious, very earnest. “Okay. Not letting Mac drive, ever again. Got it! What else?” he asks, eager to learn, eager to help, eager to be a valuable member of this team.

Jack ponders the question hard, making a constipated face. Then he snaps his fingers. “Oh, oh yes, if he ever…”

And as Bozer listens, he thinks:  _How did I ever think Mac’s life was boring?_


	12. The One at the Grave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from episode 101. Mac missed Nikki’s funeral…

They stand at her grave for a very long time; so long, in fact, that the drizzle, unseasonably cold for this time of year, soaks them through, plastering Mac’s hair to his forehead. It makes him shiver.

“Mac,” Jack coaxes softly. “Come on. This can’t be good for your recovery.”

“I’m fine,” Mac responds hoarsely, not taking his eyes off Nikki’s grave, even though the cold  _is_ making the left side of his chest, where the bastard shot him at Lake Como, hurt a lot. He pulls his left arm, hanging in a sling, closer to his body and shivers again, harder this time.

Sighing, Jack rests a hand on Mac’s back and tries it again. “Mac–”

But Mac shakes him off sharply, snapping, “I said I was  _fine_!”

Jack falls silent, dropping his hand, and Mac immediately feels like a heel. It’s not Jack’s fault. None of it is. If it wasn’t for Jack who fished him out of the lake, Mac would be dead now, too. Jack’s been nothing but a loyal friend through all of it, and he doesn’t deserve being shouted at.

“Sorry,” Mac whispers, glancing in Jack’s direction. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean–”

The hand returns to Mac’s back, warm through layers of wet clothes, and Jack replies, accepting Mac’s apology, “I get it.”

Blinking hard and rubbing his nose with the back of his right hand, Mac tries to push back tears. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye to her, back at the lake. And then I missed her funeral, too.”

“You were laid out flat on your back in a hospital bed, breathing through a tube, at the time,” Jack reminds him pointedly, though not unkindly. “Besides, we both know that Nikki’s not in there, in the coffin. They never found her body.”

Mac shakes his head, droplets of rain water running down his forehead. “That’s not the point, Jack. I loved her and I wasn’t there for her when she needed me.” Looking almost desperately at Jack, he repeats brokenly, “I  _loved_ her.”

“I know, buddy. I know,” Jack replies, rubbing Mac’s back in comfort.

The drizzle becomes rain, cold, hard and relentless, and this time, when Jack urges Mac to leave, he lets himself be guided away. He doesn’t look back.


	13. The One Where Riley Is Not Jealous (Really!)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from episode 101. Riley finds out about Mac and Nikki.

Riley’s never even seen a private jet up close, let alone flown in one. Until now. The leather seats are buttery soft, the carpet under her booted feet as thick as grass… and she’s seated facing Jack Dalton, the lying…  _liar_!

When she can’t stand his pointed silence and measuring looks anymore, Riley glares at him and snaps, “Why don’t you go and bother your friend over there?” She nods in the direction of that MacGyver guy, who’s sitting in the back of the plane, staring out of the window with a pensive, faraway look on his face.

“Mac needs a moment to himself,” Jack replies equably.

It rankles Riley a little, though she would never admit it, the fondness she hears in his voice; Jack obviously likes MacGyver,  _a lot_. And he seems…  _considerate_ of the guy’s feelings and needs. Jack’s  _never_ been considerate, not a day in his life!

Her annoyance makes her voice more acerbic than she intended, more cutting, when she replies, “Why? Does he need to reflect on how badly you two  _screwed up_ before that you lost the virus  _and_ got your tech killed?” She regrets her words the moment they leave her mouth.  _Dammit_.

The slightly amused, indulgent look is gone from Jack’s eyes in a flash. He leans forward in his seat and his voice turns quiet, almost cold. “You have issues with me, Riley? Fine, I can handle it. But keep Mac out of your temper tantrums!”

And now she’s mad again.  _Temper tantrums?_ How dare he–

But Jack’s not finished yet. “Nikki Carpenter wasn’t just our tech support. She was Mac’s girlfriend. The only steady girlfriend I’ve seen him with in the seven years I’ve known him and we pretty much live in each other’s pockets. And the perp you found? He shot her, right in front of his eyes. That bastard took Nikki hostage and then he took the virus and then he killed her  _anyway_. And as a parting gift, he shot Mac, in the chest.”

Jack clenches his jaw, emotions making his nostrils flare. “I lost a teammate that night. And I almost lost my best friend. But  _you_ weren’t there, Riley, so you don’t get to throw big words around about things you know zip about!”

Riley opens her mouth, feeling a little ashamed, but before she can say anything, Jack gets up and heads for the back of the plane where he sits down opposite MacGyver, lightly touching his knee to get his attention. Whatever he says or asks afterwards, it makes MacGyver smile a little and nod.

_Dammit_ , Riley thinks, feeling…  _left out_ , like an outsider again, and she  _hates_  it. She’s annoyed with herself. And with Jack. For years, she’s fended for herself, without his help, and she did just fine. She  _did_! Now, though?

Jack Dalton’s been back in her life for all of 24 hours and he’s already managed to throw everything into disarray, just like always. He’s started to make her want things she knows she can’t have. Simply through his irritating presence.

_To hell with him_ , Riley thinks morosely as she crosses her arms over her chest and turns to stare out of the window, anything to avoid looking at the two men in the back, to avoid contemplating the close relationship they so obviously share.  _Who needs Jack Dalton anyway?_


	14. The One Where Jack Failed, Somehow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A missing scene from episode 101. Jack can’t figure out what went wrong. All he knows is that he failed, somehow.

This was one of the hardest calls he’s ever had to make, Jack thinks as he drops his hand, holding the phone, into his lap. To call someone and tell them that their loved one was hurt, that’s always difficult, but when you have to lie about the circumstances, too, it’s twice as hard.

And today, he had to call Bozer and tell him that his best friend, Mac, was in the hospital, badly hurt, and Mac’s girlfriend, Nikki, was dead. And Bozer will forever think that it was a car accident, an everyday tragedy. He’ll never learn the truth. That Jack failed in his role as a bodyguard.

Jack clenches his jaw so hard it hurts. Because he did, he  _failed_. It was his duty to keep his team safe. And he failed, utterly in Nikki’s case, and almost in Mac’s, too. And it’s eating him alive, the knowledge that Nikki’s body’s somewhere out there, floating in the waters of Lake Como where Mac, shot in the chest, almost drowned, too.

He’s been going through it all for hours now, again and again and  _again_ , and he still can’t figure out how the bastards even found them, how they got the drop on Nikki. She should’ve been save in the van, they  _checked_ , they made  _sure_ of it.  _He_ made sure. Just like always. So why?  _How_?

Somewhere, somehow, Jack must’ve made a mistake. And it cost Nikki her life. But if he’s brutally honest with himself, his grief over her death is overshadowed by his profound relief that  _Mac_ survived, despite Jack’s screw-up. He feels sorry for Nikki but if Mac died back there, at the lake… Jack would never get over it.

Still, he swears he’ll find out what happened and he’ll take the bastards out. For Nikki and to get back the virus the men stole. He  _will_ figure out what went wrong - so that it never happens again. Mac will  _never_ get hurt like that again, not on Jack’s watch. Jack won’t  _allow_ it!

And with that decision burning bright in his heart, Jack looks to the left, to where Mac’s lying in his hospital bed, stitched together and attached to quietly blinking machines, still unconscious after his emergency surgery, and he whispers fiercely, “I’ll keep you safe, I swear.”


	15. The One Where Riley Chokes on a Bug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from ep 102. On the way to meet her parole officer, Riley and Bozer talk.

“So, you and Mac, you know each other well, then?” Riley asks from behind the wheel, driving them downtown to meet her parole officer.

Bozer, who’s sprawled lazily in the passenger seat, grins and nods. “Running on twenty years now.”

She glances at him, smiling. “You seemed pretty…  _intimate_ back then.”

“You haven’t seen  _nothing_ ,” Bozer laughs, then, seeing her raised eyebrows, he quickly corrects himself, “I didn’t mean it like  _that_! Bozer’s heart belongs only to you, my Nubian princess!”

Riley chuckles, rolling her eyes.

“I meant that we’ve done pretty much everything together, back in Mission City,” he explains with a faraway look in his eyes. “Sleepovers at each other’s places, birthday parties… he even built us walkie-talkies from scratch so that we could talk to each other long past bedtime.” He sighs. “We had such big plans back then.”

“What plans?” Riley asks, stopping at a red light.

“I was gonna be a big-time director and go places, win awards and make huge blockbusters,” Bozer replies, grinning wide. “And Mac wanted to save the world with that big brain of his.” 

But then he loses his smile and his voice becomes a little wistful. “And look at us now. I flip burgers for a living and he’s stuck in the lab or-or attending boring ass conferences that don’t solve anything  _anyway_.”

Riley makes a stifled sound, deep in her throat, and when he throws her a sideways look, eyes narrowed, she lifts a placating hand. “Sorry, I was just clearing my throat.”

“ _Right_ ,” Bozer drawls, still looking a little suspicious.

“But!” he says then, squaring his shoulders and nodding, fierce and determined. “We’re not thirty yet, so we can make a splash yet. I can  _still_ win an Oscar and Mac can  _still_ become the next James Bond or whatever.”

This time, Riley definitely chokes.

“You sure you’re okay?” Bozer asks, now genuinely concerned.

“Yeah, I must’ve swallowed a bug or something,” she replies quickly, looking firmly straight ahead.

Grimacing, Bozer agrees, “Yeah, those are nasty.”


	16. The One With the Clinic in Switzerland

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from episode 101. Thornton calls Oversight to inform him about the botched operation in Italy.

“Yes, Director Thornton?” James MacGyver says when he picks up, putting her her call on loudspeaker. He’s been waiting for an update from her, knowing their team was sent to Italy to retrieve a dangerous weapon of an unknown type.

Thornton sounds unusually halting when she replies, “We encountered certain…  _complications_ , sir.”

James frowns down at his phone. That’s not what he wanted to hear, especially in connection with a dangerous weapon. “Define ‘complications’, director!”

“We managed to retrieve the weapon, it turned out to be biological, some kind of a virus.” She pauses.

“But?” he prompts, getting slightly annoyed with her feet shuffling. He’s always known Thornton as highly competent, which is why he selected her as his son’s mentor, as the perfect person to introduce his son to the world of espionage.

“Our team was ambushed and the virus was stolen. Agent Carpenter was shot and killed in the process, sir,” Thornton explains. Then, after another very short pause, she adds, “Agent MacGyver was badly wounded, too. Sir.”

James freezes. Nikki Carpenter’s death was bad enough - she was a valuable agent and Angus’ lover; James is intimately aware of what the death of a loved one can do to a person - but the fact that Angus was hurt, too…  _Inconceivable!_

“How badly?” he asks in a bland voice as he attempts to get his emotions under control. He has to. This is bigger than his son, much bigger if they let a biological weapon slip through their fingers. Still… it’s  _his son,_  he needs to know!

Another short pause. “Mac, he was shot in the chest, sir. Agent Dalton kept him alive till Exfil arrived at their location. He was then transported to an allied clinic in Switzerland. He’s undergoing emergency surgery as we speak.”

“I see,” James replies. 

Angus is alive. He’s  _alive_ , that’s the only thing that matters right now. And James knows the clinic that Thornton’s talking about, he’s used their services more than once himself in the past, the surgeons there are excellent. Angus couldn’t be in better hands. Certainly. 

He pushes his worries aside forcefully and asks sharply, “And the virus? Do we have any leads as to who took it and where?”

This time, the pause on the other side of the line’s longer and James imagines his apparent lack of interest in his son’s fate must’ve caught Thornton off guard despite her own stoic nature and deep aversion to uncontrolled outbursts of emotions. But he doesn’t owe her any explanation, being her superior.

“No, sir. As of yet, there’ve been no leads,” Thornton answers slowly, “but we’re monitoring all our international contacts.”

“Good. Keep me posted about any developments,” James orders crisply. 

As he reaches out to hang up, though, he pauses and adds, “And about Angus’ condition, too, of course.” 

Without waiting for her response, James hangs up this time, and slumping in his chair, he lifts one hand to his forehead. He notices it’s slightly trembling and he swallows hard, his throat’s thick and his heart’s hammering. 

His son was shot!

Angus was  _shot_!

_Jesus…_


	17. The One Where Sarah Asks a Question

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from ep 102. Sarah wonders how Jack and MacGyver met. So she asks.

Sarah’s watching Thornton and Riley who are going through Barrios’ ledger at the back of the jet, heads bent together, and she thinks,  _Good luck._ She’s done with this mission.

“Here,” Jack says as he walks up to her from behind, from the front of the jet, and hands her a can of soda over her shoulder. “That’s all they had.”

She looks up at him and smiles, taking the the can. “Thanks.”

He smiles back and nods but instead of sitting back down in the seat opposite her, he glances at MacGyver, who’s sprawled on the couch across the aisle, fast asleep; he nodded off soon after take-off and has been asleep ever since. Jack’s smile turns a little exasperated, and shaking his head, he bends down to pull out a folded blanket from underneath the couch. He throws it over the sleeping man and MacGyver barely stirs, he just burrows a little deeper, proving that he was indeed a little cold.

Sarah watches Jack finally sit down. “You seem to get along pretty well,” she comments, nodding in MacGyver’s direction.

Jack throws the man a fond look. “That we do,” he agrees.

She opens the can and takes a sip of soda, then she asks, “How did you two meet?” She’s honestly interested because she feels that there’s something truly special about the relationship between Jack and MacGyver.

“It was after our time,” Jack replies, pointing between the two of them. “After my dad died, I left the CIA. I realized it… just wasn’t for me. Too much backstabbing, not enough trust. So, I re-enlisted and they shipped me off to Afghanistan. And my being the most experienced of the lot over there, got saddled with protection detail, EOD techs, if you would believe it. Cue in  _Angus MacGyver_ over there.” He points with his thumb at Macgyver, grinning.

“He was bomb squad?” Sarah says a little startled, given how young MacGyver still is. He couldn’t have been more than, what, nineteen or twenty back then? He must’ve been really good at his job, then.

Jack nods, looking very proud. “Yup. The best. I liked to tease him and call him the  _slowest bomb tech ever_ but you wouldn’t want anyone else there when you accidentally stepped on an IED . I know, it actually happened to me.” He winces a little. 

Then he continues, “So yeah, that’s how we met. I actually planned on going back home shortly after our first meeting but…” He shakes his head again, and when he looks over at MacGyver, still fast asleep, his fondness for his friend is very apparent in his eyes. “I couldn’t leave him over there alone. You wouldn’t believe the messes he can get himself into. The kid needs someone to watch over him, 24-7.”

Sarah regards him for a moment, her look pensive. “Is that why you’re back in the game despite your reservations? For him?”

He thinks about it for a moment, then he nods. “Yeah. I might not trust everyone in this dirty business but I do trust him.  _Implicitly_. And that’s good enough for me. Where he goes, I go.”

Sarah thinks Jack looks…  _content_ , settled and happy. As if something he’s been looking for his whole life long clicked into place when he met MacGyver. And she can’t help but ponder wistfully, how differently both of their lives might’ve gone if he had found that…  _something_ that he couldn’t leave behind with her.


	18. The One Where Jack’s Proficiency With the Ball Is Questioned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from 102. Mac refuses to let Jack brood.

After his parting shot about the weirdness of his comment about them at least having each other, Mac turns to leave, but when he looks back and sees Jack still standing there, staring wistfully after Sarah… he stops and sighs. He can’t leave the poor man here like this.

“Come on, big guy,” he calls out in a voice that’s way too cheerful and way too bright and beckons to Jack. “Bozer promised to make his famous hamburgers and it’s been way too long since I taught you a lesson at the hoop!”

_And there it is_ , Mac thinks with satisfaction when Jack immediately straightens up and turns to glare at Mac, Sarah, at least for the moment, forgotten. “’Taught  _me_ a lesson’? You suffering from memory loss there, hoss?” He sets off after Mac, looking very fierce.

Mac waves his hand airily and starts walking again, knowing that Jack will catch up in a second or two. “Oh no, I remember our last game perfectly. I kicked your ass! Must be your old age showing, both at the hoop and in the memory area.”

“You insolent whelp!” Jack exclaims, pushing Mac from behind and making him stumble a little. “I’ll show you old age. Old age,  _my ass_. It’s all experience!”

Grinning, Mac throws Jack a mischievous look over his shoulder. “So, if you’re  _so certain_  of your proficiency with the ball, how about a bet?”

Jack nods, firm and determined. “I’m in!”

“Great! So, whoever wins chooses the entertainment tonight,” Mac suggests.

Jack eyes him suspiciously. “Don’t tell me, it’ll be something very educational and very boring if you win, right?”

Mac blinks at him innocently. “I thought you trusted your… ‘athletic prowess’?” The quotation marks simply cannot be overheard.

“Fine!” Jack growls. “But if _I_ win, we’re gonna watch  _Amityville_ , all the movies!”

Mac winces a little on the inside but it’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make. Besides, maybe he  _will_ beat Jack. And then he’ll finally make him watch the documentary about Raphael and his Sistine Chapel - or, as Jack likes to call him, “that artsy dude with the weird chubby angel obsession, I prefer the Ninja Turtle, thanks.”

“Fine,” Mac replies. “It’s a deal!”

Jack rubs his hands. “Great. But first, I think I need to go home and change.” He pulls his t-shirt off his body, and with a little grimace, he looks down at the stains and smears, courtesy of the Venezuelan countryside.

Mac lifts his eyebrows and looks him up and down. “You think?”


	19. The One Where Jack Inadvertently Leads Mac Down a Dangerous Path

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coda to episode 101. All Jack meant was to cheer Mac up a little, to calm him down, not this. Definitely not this.

“What is it, Patty?” Jack asks when Thornton hangs up her cell phone, looking disturbed.

“It’s  _Director Thornton_  for you, Dalton,” she replies but there’s no heat behind it, it’s an automatic, obligatory response. Then she takes a deep breath and says, “Nikki escaped.”

Heavy silence settles over the porch as all eyes turn to Mac who’s staring into the fire pit, suddenly frozen and with an unreadable expression on his face, the Phoenix pendant clenched hard in his fist.

“How?” Riley asks in disbelief. “I thought she was being transported under heavy guard.”

Thornton sighs and rubs her forehead. “She used a moment of distraction and slipped away.”

“Did she hurt anyone?” Mac inquires in a soft, slightly hoarse voice, eyes still on the low-burning fire.

“No,” Thornton assures him. “Apparently, she unlocked her cuffs, using a bobby pin.”

Everyone once again glances at Mac.

“I see,” he whispers. And then, with a soft, “Excuse me,” he gets up and leaves the porch.

“Mac–” Thornton tries to call after him, but Jack stops her with an upraised hand.

“Let me,” he says quietly, and setting his half-drunk beer aside, he follows his friend inside.

He finds Mac in the kitchen, leaning forward against the counter and gripping the edge of the granite so hard his knuckles turned white. He’s standing there with his head hanging low and his eyes closed, breathing slowly in and out to get himself back under control.

“You okay?” Jack asks softly.

Mac turns his head to look at him and his eyes are ablaze with restrained anger and deep hurt. “She escaped using the tools  _I_ gave her.”

Jack shakes his head. “Don’t.”

But Mac plunges on. “And cracking a lock using a damn bobby pin is the least of the things that I taught her. What else will she use against us?”

“Mac–” Jack tries to stop him but Mac refuses to listen.

“All the skills I insisted she learned,  _everything_ , it was meant to keep her safe!” he rages on, voice quiet but hot with fury. “And now she’ll use them to stay ahead of us. God, she really had me for a fool, didn’t she?”

Jack takes a step forward. “Mac, don’t do this to yourself. Just don’t. She had us all fooled.  _Everybody_!”

“But not everybody was  _sleeping_ with her, were they?” Mac snaps, wounded to the bone.

And there it is, Jack knows, the crux of the matter. Nikki was the first woman Mac truly let in, given his abundance of abandonment issues, the first one he took a chance with. And she turned out to be a bad apple.  _His girlfriend_ , of all people.

_Christ, what a mess_ , Jack sighs inwardly.

Raising his hands placatingly, Jack says in a soothing tone of voice, “Look, we’ll find her. We’ll get her and this time, we’ll make sure she doesn’tget away. We  _will_ make her pay for what she did. I promise you that. Alright?”

Hiding his face in his hands for a moment, Mac takes a deep breath, once, twice, to calm down again. Then, when he drops his hands, he nods, his look hard and determined. “You’re right. She’ll pay. I’ll  _personally_ make sure of that!”

And in the privacy of his mind, Jack winces, suddenly very,  _very_  apprehensive. Because  _this_ is  _not_ what he meant,  _at all…_


	20. The One Where Mac Sees Himself in Alexei (and Doesn’t Like It)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from ep 104. Mac doesn’t want to end up like Alexei.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Jack comments, driving them down an LA street that’s almost deserted at this time, an hour after midnight. The interior of their car’s dark, illuminated only by the street lamps they pass and the dashboard.

Mac, who’s been sitting there with his arm resting on the rolled-down window, head propped on his fist, sighs, staring out through the windshield. “I can’t stop thinking about Viktor,” he admits.

Jack glances at him. “I hear Alexei asked Thornton if we could ship Viktor’s body to the States and bury him here. I guess he didn’t want to leave his friend behind again.”

Nodding, Mac says, “Yeah, Thornton agreed do it and Phoenix will cover all the expenses. Viktor helped us a lot and this is the least we can do for him.”

They really couldn’t have done it without Viktor, stopped the nuke from going off. And then, when it was almost all over, he died. Saving Alexei’s life.

And that’s the crux of the matter. Viktor and Alexei, they remind Mac too much of Jack and him. He watched Alexei on the flight back home. The man seemed…  _smaller_ ,  _older_. As if something fundamental in him broke when Viktor died. Mac never wants to feel that pain.

“Mac?” Jack prompts quietly.

“I don’t want to end up like Alexei,” Mac replies softly.

“With a bladder the size of a pea?” Jack tries to lighten up the mood but the joke falls flat.

Mac drops his hand and turns to him. “I don’t want you to die for me,” he states clearly. 

Jack glances at him and frowns. “Mac–” he starts saying but Mac jumps in.

“I know it’s your job to–”

And now it’s Jack who cuts  _him_ off, in a voice that’s still quiet yet full of emotions, as he looks Mac’s way again. “I’m  _not_ doing this just because it’s  _my job_ , man. It’s not been so for a very,  _very_ long time.”

Jack cares about him, so much. And it’s exactly that what hit Mac so hard when he watched Viktor die for Alexei: the knowledge that Jack wouldn’t hesitate to do the same thing, he would take a bullet for Mac without thinking twice about it. With complete disregard for himself.

“I know,” Mac whispers. “It’s just–” He pauses, trying to find the right words. “You matter, too, Jack, you do. Just… don’t forget that while you go about keeping me safe. Alright?”

Jack doesn’t respond for a while, not until he slows down to a stop at a red light. Then he turns to Mac and his eyes are unreadable in the dark. Mac expects him to turn it into a joke again because that’s how Jack deals with difficult situations, with difficult topics. So he’s surprised when, in the end, Jack simply nods and replies, “Alright.”

The rest of the ride to Mac’s house is silent but it’s a comfortable silence, full of understanding. And that knot of anxiety under Mac’s breastbone, nestled there ever since he watched Viktor die, unravels.


	21. The One With Nature vs. Nurture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassian truly is his father’s son. Murdoc’s POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a what-if story featuring Murdoc and his son Cassian, set after ep 215. VERY disturbing and dark. (Hey, don’t look at me like that. I blame them muses *points*)

He tells his son to put on his headphones again, daddy’s going to work, but this time, _this time_ Cassian’s reaction surprises him.

The boy’s head is bent over his sketchbook that he has propped up on his knees, feet on the dashboard of their car, when he says, “We don’t have to do that anymore, dad.” And looking up, he turns his eyes in Murdoc’s direction, his pencil hovering a finger’s breadth above the page. “I know what you do for a living.”

Murdoc freezes because, as much as he would hate to admit it to anyone, even to himself, he  _is_ afraid his child will reject him once he learns the truth. “You do?” he asks slowly, tightening his hands into fists, the leather of his gloves creaking softly. If MacGyver’s team–

Cassian nods. “I have known for a while,” he confirms calmly. “Those people who took me away from my school, they thought I didn’t. They thought I was  _dumb_. So, I let them.” He shrugs. “But I know.”

“And what do you  _think_ you know?” Murdoc asks, still feeling unbalanced, as if the ground is shifting beneath his feet.

“You kill people for money,” Cassian answers with another casual shrug, then he goes back to his drawing, cool and impassive, as if he didn’t just admit he knew his father was a murderer.

Murdoc takes a sharp breath, knowing he has to treat carefully now. He would never hurt Cassian - the child’s probably the only living, breathing being on this earth who is safe from him, always - still… this situation needs to be handled carefully.

“And… what do you think of it?” Murdoc inquires, staring intently as his son.

Another indifferent shrug. “If they’re dumb enough to get themselves killed, they deserve it, I guess.” Then he adds something that staggers Murdoc even more, “I hope you’ll teach me one day. We could spend more time together that way.”

“You would…  _like_ that?” Murdoc probes carefully.

“Yeah,” Cassian says, nodding, eyes still on his sketchbook. “Playing with pets was fun, back in school, but… a bit boring. They didn’t really fight back.”

Murdoc’s eyes widen - and then they downright glitter with  _delight._  Oh, Cassian truly  _is_ his son. Murdoc couldn’t be more  _proud_!

“How about we talk about it when I get back from work?” he suggests, nodding at the house where his next target’s still going on about his life, unaware.

Cassian nods again, running his pencil up and down the page in sharp, cutting strokes. “Okay.”

“Wait here, then,” Murdoc tells his son, deciding to take a leap of faith in the hope that he can actually have this, this  _glorious_ thing to share with his son.

When he gets out, Cassian calls after him. “Dad?” 

Murdoc bends down to look at his son. “Yes?”

Cassian turns to him and his eyes seem to glitter like Murdoc’s own, when he says, “Make him scream.”


	22. The One About the Hero's Daughter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A missing scene from episode 106. Mac’s avoided this long enough.

They return to LA in the wee hours of the morning, the sun’s just barely crested the horizon when their jet lands and they get out, the tarmac’s still wet and cool after a late night shower. 

They head for their cars, tired and not entirely sure how they should feel about their mission: they saved the peace talks at the U.N., certainly, but The Ghost escaped again.

And then, as they leave the terminal, Mac stops, having come to a decision. “Guys,” he says, “I think I have somewhere to be.”

They all turn to look at him, Thornton, Riley and Jack - who smiles slowly. “Annabel?” he hazards a guess, seeing through Mac like he always does.

Mac smiles back. “Yeah. I’ve been avoiding this long enough.”

Thornton looks from one to the other with her eyebrows raised. “Who’s Annabel?” she asks.

They both ignore her for the moment which makes her frown, her stern visage turning disapproving. She hates it when she’s not obeyed - or answered - instantly.

“Want me to come with you?” Jack offers, hefting his overnight bag in his hand, ready to roll.

But Mac shakes his head. “Thanks, big guy, but no. It’s best I do this alone. If I catch the next flight, I should be home by tonight.”

“Alright,” Jack nods, trusting Mac’s judgment. “Stay safe.”

Mac nods back, and then, without another word, he turns around and heads back inside.

Behind him, he can hear Riley ask, “Where is he going?” and Thornton repeat, more sharply this time, “Who’s Annabel?” To which Jack responds, “Our Mac’s off to see a very special young lady. Her name’s Annabel and she’s…”

Smiling, Mac leaves the explanation to Jack, he has a plane to catch. There’s a little girl out there who deserves to know her father was a hero. 


	23. The One Where You Take the Job in LA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Episode 108, told from Murdoc’s POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first time I wrote a ficlet in the “you-form”. I don’t like fics written this way but I couldn’t figure out how else to write it since we didn’t know Murdoc’s alias at this point and I feared getting lost in all the he-s. So, an experiment!

You take the job in LA because you’re bored. It’s a simple assassination - four secret  _secret_  agents of some  _hush-hush_  agency - nothing new or exciting. But it’s a good exercise, definitely more challenging than duck shooting. Maybe.

But then you almost lose before the game even truly began when two of your victims-to-be start chasing you down a stairwell and one of them  _electrifies the railing_. The jolt forces you to let go, to drop and, wow, that actually hurt!

Alright,  _now_ you start paying attention!

You always read up on your targets,  _always_ , your meticulous research and willingness to go to any lengths to get the job done, that’s what’s kept you in the game for so long, that’s what makes you so good. No false modesty there, you know you’re good.

So, your targets: boring, boring, so very, very  _boring;_ it’s always better to get the dull, unimportant stuff out of the way first. And then,  _then_  you finally get to the one you actually wanted to know more about:  _Angus MacGyver_.

Mother dead (a sob story). Father out of the picture (daddy issues?). No other family (abandonment issues?). Genius level IQ, two years at MIT (interesting!). Army, EOD training (positively  _intriguing_!). DXS, Phoenix Foundation (why?).

How to get to him? How to crack this nut? The others, they’re going to fall like dominoes, but this one, this one might prove challenging. And you feel downright  _playful_. 

That’s why you steal that little guy’s, Bozer’s, cellphone when you set up your ambush at MacGyver’s house - the George Washington’s mask is a nice touch, if you may say so yourself - because you hope/expect(?)/ _wish_ (???) that boy genius finds a way out of this, too.

And he  _does_! Angus MacGyver surprises you again. It’s positively  _tantalizing_.

 _Now_ you really want to get him, so badly that your fingers tingle with excitement and you have to lick your lips when you talk to him - well, dear Angus is actually not responding, he’s not talking, but you know, you-you just  _know that_ he’s there,  _listening_ , torn, and that makes your heart beat wild. Setting up the trap, drawing in your prey, oh, you haven’t felt this alive in-in… incredible, it’s been  _so long_.

You’re going to be almost sorry when you kill him,  _Angus MacGyver_. Almost. It won’t stop you, though. Once you catch a scent, nothing can stop you. And you can almost  _taste_ the boy wonder’s death!

And then… then he  _beats_ you!

You simply can’t  _believe_ it! He steals your toys and he makes himself a bait, to draw  _you_ in! He turns your trap against you! And you’re certain he’s going to kill you now - you would, you would do it and you would enjoy it, so much! - and he doesn’t. Angus MacGyver lets you live.

You’re almost insulted - are you not worth killing, a worthy trophy? - but at the same time, oh, the  _bleeding heart_ , he lets you live and that means, you’re going to meet again, you just  _know_ it. They think they have you trapped but they don’t know you! They don’t know anything!

And then he asks you for your name. If someone else did it -  _anyone,_ really! - you would laugh in their face. But it’s  _MacGyver_ , the one and only out there, and he deserves to know, he deserves a token for beating you - and you want him to know who’s going to come for him,  _soon_.

 _Murdoc_ , that’s what you tell him. It’s not your real name but it’s a good name, a solid name. You’ve always liked it, as aliases go.

And then they lead you away and you’re already plotting your escape because prison can’t hold you - how ridiculous, how  _insulting_ of them to think so lowly of you! And when you get out, you’ll come for him, for Angus. But you won’t simply kill him, oh no, you plan to enjoy his death, savor it… make it worthy of the man he is.

It’ll be glorious. Your masterpiece.


	24. The One Where El Noche’s Funds Are Seized

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from episode 107. El Noche put a price on Mac’s head. James MacGyver is not pleased.

“Hey, Jimmy. Paul Peterson here.”

Oh yes, one of CIA’s top dogs and James MacGyver’s trusted friend for 17 years and running now.

“Look, I don’t know what that kid of yours did this time, but he sure as hell kicked the hornets’ nest over here. Check your email…”

James does exactly that. And what he finds sitting in his inbox makes his blood boil. It’s a CIA report listing some chatter from south of the border: apparently, Joaquin “El Noche” Sancola of the Merida cartel is offering 4 million US dollars for the head of one Angus MacGyver, affiliation unknown.

_Christ Almighty, Angus!_  James feels exasperated. But also strangely…  _proud_.

Adding a terse “Warn him!” to the email, James forwards it to Thornton, then he picks up his phone and dials another friend.

“Billy? James MacGyver. I need a big favor. Did DEA seize Sancola’s funds yet? Good, see that your people get everything. If it even  _smells_ of money, have them book it.”

He pauses and when he continues, his voice is hard and cold,  _ruthless_. “And then you make sure everyone within and without the US border knows that El Noche doesn’t have a cent to his name, not a  _single cent_!”

James will be damned if he lets that bastard put a hit on his kid!


	25. The One Where Riley Tries to Keep Mac Safe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A missing scene from ep 107. Riley taught Mac how to survive in prison. But how did it come to that?

When they leave the war room, having received their orders from Thornton, Riley pulls Mac aside and tells him, “Don’t take this assignment. Tell Thornton no.”

Mac blinks at her in surprise. “Riles, the operation’s set. If  _I_ don’t take it, Thornton will just send Jack.”

“Then let her!” she snaps quietly.

Smiling in amusement, Mac says, “You actually  _want_ Jack to go undercover in  _prison_? I knew you two had issues but–”

“It’s not that!” Riley cuts him off. Because it isn’t. She doesn’t want  _anybody_ to go on this mission. But if the choice is between Mac and Jack, then she  _would_ choose Jack.

Mac lifts his eyebrows. “So  _what_ is it about? Don’t you trust my skills?”

She waves her hand in frustration. “It’s not your skills I don’t trust. It’s your  _looks_!”

Mac frowns in confusion, apparently not getting it. And that’s the problem here. Nobody seems to be  _getting_ it!

“Mac,” Riley says imploringly, “this is a maximum security prison we’re talking about here, mostly lifers with no chance of parole. These men are  _never_ getting out. And then  _you_ come in” –she points at him– “and maybe you need someone to actually tell you this, but you’re a  _really_ good looking guy. The kind of person these-these gangbangers and murderers would kill to get their hands on - and I mean that  _literally,_ in the  _biblical_ sense!”

She takes a small step closer, trying very hard to make him understand. “I know you can take care of yourself but these men, they aren’t foreign agents or enemy soldiers, they aren’t going to be after you for your intel or because of who you work for. They’re beyond caring about these things. They follow a completely different set of rules, rules you have no clue about. And that will get you  _hurt_!”

Mac stares at her for a moment, actually considering her words, then he says, “So teach me.”

That shocks her so much that for a moment, she’s at a loss for words. “What?”

Mac nods. “I understand that this is a very painful topic for you, and under any other circumstances, I would never ask you to relive those experiences, but if you think there’s something I need to know–”

“I think you should just  _drop_ this mission!” she insists, almost desperate now.

Mac’s expression is a little strained when he shakes his head in response and Riley realizes that he isn’t exactly happy about this assignment either. “I can’t, Riles. Thornton’s set on this mission and if  _I_ don’t go,  _Jack_ will have to. And I would never forgive myself if something happened to him then.”

_Idiot!_  Riley thinks and she’s not sure if she means Mac or herself. 

Because she knows that, if Mac’s truly resolved to do it, then  _she_ will do it, too, she’s going to unlock that box with the most painful and scary memories of her life to help him get through this. She doesn’t want to, she really,  _really_  doesn’t - but what she wants even less is to watch Mac get hurt, knowing she could’ve done something to prevent it. She would never be able to live with herself.

“Fine,” she agrees in the end, feeling her heart start pounding and her hands turn clammy. “I’ll do it. I’ll tell you all I remember about life in prison.”

And she does. She teaches Mac the unwritten rules and she gives him the best advice she can. Still, she knows it might not be enough, not in there, where you can’t run or hide and nobody’s in your corner but you.

She doesn’t sleep, plagued with nightmares and indescribable dread, till Mac returns home safely.


	26. The One on the Plane from LA to NY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from episode 106. On the plane from LA to NY Jack worries.

Having let Mac use the jet that morning, Thornton gets them on a military plane, flying straight from Los Angeles to New York. The trip’s far from comfortable but it’s nothing Jack’s not used to from years back, so he just leans back, closes his eyes - and  _worries_.

Which Riley, sitting next to him, picks up on. “You look worried,” she comments.

In any other circumstances, Jack would be overjoyed that she’s actually talking to him, not yelling or snarking but  _talking_ , of her own volition. Now, though, all he can think of is Mac, tangling with The Ghost again, on the other side of the  _damn continent_.

“Yeah, well, I am,” he replies, without opening his eyes.

She pauses, then, in a softer voice, barely audible over the loud humming of the plane, she asks, “Is The Ghost really that bad?”

Now Jack does open his eyes and looks over at her. “Think the worst and add a pinch of evil for a good measure. That’s our guy.”

Riley looks down, at the laptop lying in her lap. “So… you went up against him? Back in Afghanistan?” Her voice’s hesitant, careful. She’s unsure of how far she can go with her questions.

Jack shakes his head. “No, not me. Mac did. That was before we were paired up. From what I heard, he and some other EOD techs went toe-to-toe with that bastard, making it a pretty deadly game of cat and mouse. I still don’t know who the  _mouse_ was in that.”

What he does know is that Mac didn’t come out of that unscathed. Jack never found out what exactly happened between Mac and The Ghost but he saw the aftermath, when they first met, and the scars ran deep. They still do.

Riley nods. “You think… If it  _is_ The Ghost, you think Mac can take him?” she asks, glancing at Jack.

“If anyone can, it’s Mac,” he assures her, firm and unhesitating. Of this, Jack’s absolutely certain. There’s no better bomb disposal expert than MacGyver and he’s speaking from experience here, not just loyalty. Years-long experience.

It’s not Mac’s expertise Jack’s worried about, it’s his state of mind. Because in that short chat they just had, with Mac in NY and them in LA, he could already see Mac’s old, pre-Jack Dalton habits reinserting themselves. And that’s bad.

Jack leans back and closes his eyes again, willing the plane to hurry up and get him to New York, thinking,  _Just wait for me, buddy, don’t do anything stupid on your own. Wait for me to watch your back. We can do this -_ together.


	27. The One With the Best Friend Conundrum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from ep 109. So, if Bozer’s Mac’s best friend… what’s Jack?

They just dropped off Janis, glad to be rid of that smug bastard, and as they head for the car that’s about to take them back to the airport and to their waiting jet, Mac grabs Jack by the arm to stop him, letting Riley pass them by with a curious glance.

Jack looks at him with his eyebrows raised in question and Mac takes a deep breath, not exactly sure how to go about it but knowing he has to address this  _thing_ nonetheless. 

“Jack,” he starts, then pauses again, only to continue haltingly, “what I said back at the embassy, about Bozer being my best friend… I know you meant what you said as a joke, that you were offended–”

The light goes on for Jack and he smiles. “Mac–”

But Mac talks right over him. “I’ve known Bozer since we were kids, he’s helped made me who I am today–”

Jack tries again. “Mac–”

“But that doesn’t mean you didn’t, too,” Mac continues as if Jack hasn’t spoken. “That you don’t mean as much to me as he does–”

One more try. “I know that–”

It’s no use, though, because Mac carries on, he needs to say this and he needs for Jack to hear it. “You’re my  _partner_ , Jack. There’s no one I trust more. No one who knows more about me. You’re the first one I go to when I–”

Jack drops his hand on Mac’s shoulder. “Hoss, I  _know_ that, all of it,” he states firmly, finally shutting Mac up. “Do you really think me so insecure that I would doubt my place in your life? I don’t need you to spell out for me what this” –he waves a hand between them– “is. You tell me every time you save my life out there, in the field. Every time you indulge me with a Star Wars marathon or-or Die Hard and pretend to enjoy it–”

“I do enjoy it!” Mac insists. And he does, he really does. Even though he knows these movies by heart by now. But it’s not about those flicks. It’s about the time spent with someone you can truly relax with.

“My point is,” Jack says, “I might goof around a lot but I  _am_ actually an adult who understands you can have more than one close friend in your life. And that each relationship’s different, it doesn’t mean one’s more or less important to you than the other. We’re good, kid. I promise.” He squeezes Mac’s shoulder one last time and lets go.

For a moment, Mac doesn’t know what to say. His throat’s suddenly a bit thick. And so he goes with what’s always worked for them so far: a joke. “Wow, you know, sometimes you sound almost  _wise_ , old man.”

Jack snorts and pulls him into a headlock. “ _Smartass_. Just for that, I’ll make you sit through The Conjuring again once we get back.”

“We’ve seen that 29 times already!” Mac pretends to whine, fighting a grin, still locked in a hold he could easily escape any time he wanted. He doesn’t.

“Yes,” Jack nods, dragging Mac along. “30 is a nice round number. And you’re buying pizza, too. That’ll teach you some respect!”

Mac laughs.


	28. The One With Mrs. Ericson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coda to episode 110. They all attend Arthur Ericson’s funeral.

When little Valerie Lawson calls the number Mac gave her, for the first time in over a year, to tell Mac that Mr. Ericson, his beloved teacher and the school principal, died of a heart attack, they all decide to go to the funeral, even Jack.

Matty gives them the day off - she didn’t know Arthur Ericson but she can see what a blow his death is to both Mac and Bozer - and the four of them, Mac and Jack and Bozer and Riley, borrow one of Phoenix’s cars to drive to Mission City to say goodbye to a truly exceptional man.

Mrs. Ericson -  _call me Millie, my boy_  - asks Mac to say a word or two about her husband at the funeral and Mac’s happy to oblige, even though his throat’s all closed up and his eyes are burning as he speaks about Arthur and about all the good things he did for them, for “his” kids, and the scores and scores of people in attendance can only smile and nod through their tears.

After it’s all over and the people start to depart, having offered their condolences to her, Millie takes Mac aside, on a walk through the sunlit cemetery. She’s a tiny woman of a frail body but larger than life presence and Mac’s always liked her a lot. And now, as she links her slim arm with his, they talk about Arthur, about the good old times. It’s a sweet, melancholy moment.

As they head back in the end, towards where Mac’s friends are waiting for him, Millie says, “Me and my husband, we’ve never had kids, we’ve never been that lucky. But he was so proud of you, Mac, my Arthur. He was overjoyed when you got into MIT. And even though it surprised him when you then dropped out and enlisted, his admiration for your courage and your integrity grew tenfold.”

Mac’s cheeks warm up a little and he feels the loss of his old teacher even more keenly than before. Millie’s next words catch him by surprise, though.

“I don’t know if your grandfather ever told you but, after your mother died, after your father left, they signed some legal documents, my Arthur and your grandpa. He wanted you provided for, you know,” she says.

Mac looks down at her, confused. “What are you saying, Millie?”

“Your grandpa, he wrote a will back then, and he appointed Arthur and I your legal guardians, just in case something happened to him,” Millie explains, patting him on the hand and smiling a little wistfully. “When he came to us and asked us if we would do it, we didn’t hesitate, not for a second. Arthur was so fond of you, Mac, as if you were his own…”

Hours later, as they head back to LA, Mac and his team, he still feels shaken by what he found out. He wonders what it said about his father, that he allowed this. But most of all, he wishes so badly that he found out before Arthur died.

“I wish they told me before,” he says aloud, staring out of the passenger side window at the landscape flashing by.

Jack glances at him. “Mac, your grandfather lived out a long life, he got to see you grow up, and that part of his will never had to be put into effect. There was no need to burden a kid with this.”

Sighing, Mac shakes his head unhappily. “I know, I just… I would’ve liked to thank Arthur, tell him how grateful I was for what he did. I wish he knew how much that meant to me.”

Smiling a little, Jack throws him another look, fond and knowing. “He knew, buddy. Believe me, he knew.”

And Mac can only hope that Jack’s right.


	29. The One on the Back Porch, in the Middle of the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coda to ep 112. Bozer finds Mac sitting on the porch, in the dark, apparently getting drunk.

“You okay?” Bozer asks as he steps out onto the back porch.

He woke up in the middle of the night and was headed for the kitchen when he noticed that the back door was open. It made him curious, so out he went to see what was going on, only to find Mac there, sitting in one of the wooden chairs on the porch with his knees bent and a beer bottle dangling from his fingers, eyes on the city lights, glowing bright in the distance. This was not a typical behavior for Mac, getting drunk, alone, in the dark. But then, the day they just head was far from typical, too.

When Mac only makes a soft, neutral sound in response, Bozer wonders just how much he’s drunk already.

He pads past his friend on bare feet to sit down on the edge of the second chair. “Is it Thornton?” His voice sounds strangely hushed in the darkness of the porch.

Mac sighs. “Thornton… Nikki…”

Bozer frowns. “I thought you two were okay again?” Was he wrong?

Another sigh and then Mac takes a sip from his bottle. The blinking city lights are throwing soft, shifting shadows on his face. “Don’t get me wrong, Boze, I’m glad it turned out she’s not a terrorist, after all, that she did not sold us out, but…”

He shakes his head and turns his glittering eyes to Bozer. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust her again,  _fully_ trust her, not just with my life but my  _team’s_. Not after…  _everything_.”

Bozer props his elbows on his knees and rubs his hands. “Would you-would you rather  _she_ be the bad able _,_ not Thornton?”

Mac rubs his face with his free hand. “It’s not that easy, Boze. It’s not like option A is really all that better than option B. Like we told you back at the office, Nikki would’ve turned traitor a few months ago, Thornton was deceiving us for years. I loved Nikki but Thornton and Jack, they taught me everything I know about this job. You’re asking me if I would prefer to be betrayed by my lover or my mentor. Both hurt, Boze, just in a different way.”

“Loved…” Bozer comments softly, noticing what Mac just said.

“What?” Mac asks, looking at him.

“You just said that you ‘ _loved_ ’ Nikki,” Bozer explains. “Past tense. So, you don’t love her anymore?”

Mac pauses, frowning, contemplating his own words. And feelings. In the end, he says, “I don’t blame her for what she did, I don’t. But I don’t think we - I don’t think  _I_ can go back to what we had before between us. Too much water under the bridge. Too much hurt. I’ve forgiven her, knowing what I know now, but I’m not sure I can forget.”

And Bozer understands that, he really does. He remembers how angry he was when he found out that Mac had been lying to him for years. And he, at least, didn’t spend months thinking his best friend tried to get him killed and betrayed his country. He can understand how that might change the way you view the other person. He wishes he knew how to make it easier,  _better_ for Mac.

He must be quiet for too long, contemplating how to help his friend without falling back on empty platitudes about time healing all wounds, because Mac suddenly turns to him and smiles, “Go back to bed, Boze, I’ll be fine, really.”

Bozer lifts his eyebrows, offended. “You want me to let you get drunk here alone, in the dark? What kind of a friend do you take me for?”

This time, Mac laughs softly. “It’s really okay, don’t worry. The beer” –he lifts the half-empty bottle– “it’s non-alcoholic. The  _last_ thing I need is to wake up with a headache tomorrow, on top of everything. I just needed some time to think.”

“Well, if you’re sure…” Bozer mutters grudgingly. He  _is_ rather worn out.

“I  _am_ ,” Mac assures him, still smiling a little. “But thanks for checking up on me. You’re a good friend.”

Feeling a little touched, Bozer gets up, but before leaving the porch, he tells Mac in a voice laced with concern, “Just… don’t stay up too long, okay? Lack of sleep is no better than hangover.” 

“I won’t,” Mac promises. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Bozer replies and with one last glance at his friend through the wooden railing, he heads back inside.


	30. The One in the Interrogation Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matty and Jack and the interrogation room from episode 222.

“I guess we’re done here, then,” Jack says in quiet voice. “Can I go now?”

Matty only nods.

Jack gets up and walks around the table to the door of the interrogation room. But when he opens it, he stops with his hand on the doorknob and looks back.  “You know, I love the kid, Matty. And when I say I would do anything for him, I mean it, screw all the dumb jokes about a Wookiee life debt.”

Matty turns around. “I know that, Jack,” she replies softly. “But Mac’s  _not_ a kid anymore. He hasn’t been one for a very,  _very_ long time now.”

Nodding, Jack agrees, “You’re right. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need someone to look out for him. Someone who’s always going to put  _his_ well-being first. I’ve been doing that for over seven years now - and I’m not about to stop.”

Matty doesn’t say anything to that, she doesn’t react. Not that Jack expected her to. She’s as close-mouthed and secretive as ever. Besides, he’s not sure himself if he meant his words as a simple statement - or a  _warning_.

With a last nod, he leaves the interrogation room and closes the door behind him with a soft click.


	31. The One Where Murdoc Makes a Call (This Time to Jack)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A coda to ep 204. Murdoc calls Jack. Because that’s what he does.

It’s half past two in the night when his cell phone rings, dragging Jack out of a deep sleep. Moaning in frustration, he reaches for it, and without opening his eyes, without checking the caller ID, he grumbles, “ _What_?!”

“Cranky, cranky, aren’t we, Jackie Boy?”

_Murdoc._

Jack immediately snaps up into a sitting position, switching on the light and grabbing his gun, sweeping it across his bedroom. But there’s no one around, Murdoc’s just a voice on the other end of the line, a maniacal laughter.

_Christ!_

“What do you want?” Jack snaps, still a little shaken.

“Oh, a world in chaos, my son back… and to talk about our favorite genius boy?” Murdoc says, teasingly, his big grin evident in voice.

Jack almost growls. “Don’t you  _dare_! You don’t get to talk, you don’t get to even  _think_ about Mac!”

More laughter, quiet and amused. “Oh,  _Jack_ , I think that the last twenty four hours proved, I can do  _more_ than just think or talk about him. I can take him  _away_ and give him  _back_ at my pleasure and convenience.”

“You didn’t  _give_ him back, he  _escaped_!” Jack snaps, not disputing the first part. Because, as much as he hates to admit it, as much it  _scares_ him to admit it, Murdoc’s right. He took Mac and Jack couldn’t do anything to stop him.

“He did, Jack,” Murdoc allows. “But only because I wanted him to. Only because I gave him the tools. And then I sat back and watched the monkey perform. He did better than I expected, our boy did.”

Jack swallows another growl. They suspected this, that Murdoc let Mac go so that they could hunt down Fletcher for him. But to have it confirmed, by Murdoc  _himself_ , it rankles Jack.

Murdoc continues, his voice playful. “If it was truly my wish, you would’ve never gotten him back, Jack. You would’ve never found out what happened to him, if he was still alive or long dead. Or I might’ve sent him back in itty bitty pieces.” He pauses, then he adds, pensively, “Now  _that_ would’ve been fun. I’ll have to remember it for next time.”

Jack feels sick. “There won’t  _be_ a next time, you creep!” he barks. “Because next time, I’ll  _kill_ you!”

A chuckle. “Oh, Jackie Boy, I would love to see you try. I honestly would. Our dear Angus thinks so highly of you and your skills, unfortunately, I have yet to see you actually  _apply_ yourself.” He tsks.

Jack grits his teeth, swallowing a caustic response. Because Murdoc’s words, they hit a sore spot, as Murdoc knew they would. Because when Mac was taken, Jack was left completely helpless. The trail soon ran cold and even knowing who took Mac didn’t help any. If Mac hadn’t escaped, if Murdoc hadn’t  _let_ him escape… they -  _Jack_ \- would’ve never gotten him back.

“Did you call just to gloat?” Jack snarls, angry with Murdoc, angry with  _himself_.

There’s a surprised pause. “Well,  _of course_. Haven’t you been paying any attention at all, so far? That’s what I  _do_ , Jack. What would be the point of hurting people if I didn’t get to gloat about it to their loved ones? Though I do admit, that only the special ones merit this treatment. Those who bring me deep joy and satisfaction. And let me tell you, my friend, Angus’ screams were  _quite_ satisfactory!”

Jack hangs up.

He sits there, in his bed, tangled up in bed sheets, with his gun in his right hand and his phone in his left one, and he’s trembling and breathing harshly, shaken and furious and…  _scared_.

Yes, he’s  _scared_ of this maniac, of what Murdoc could do, of what he  _will_ do because it’s just a matter of time, Jack knows and he fears he won’t be able to stop him again, that he’ll come too late -  _again_! And that next time, Murdoc’s  _not_ going to feel generous and he won’t give Mac back.

The phone in his hand beeps. A text message. When Jack opens it, it says, “ _Say hi to Angus for me. XOXO_ ”

Jack throws the phone across the room, smashing it to pieces.

He doesn’t sleep again that night.


	32. The One Where Sarah Gives Advice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from ep 112. There are some lines you simply don’t cross.

When it’s all over and Thornton is arrested and taken away, Sarah approaches Mac at the Phoenix HQ and asks reluctantly, “Can I talk to you for a second?”

He frowns a little. “Look, if it’s about Jack–”

Sarah laughs softly and raises her hand to stop him. “No, nothing like that.” She pauses. “It’s about you and Nikki.”

Still frowning, Mac tilts his head in inquiry.

“Nikki, she’s a strong, resourceful woman and a great agent…” Sarah trails off. 

“But?” Mac prompts.

“But I’m not sure if her success in the field makes her a good candidate for a relationship. And I say that as someone who  _is_ in a relationship.”

Sarah pauses again and when she continues, her concern for Mac’s reflected both in her eyes and in her words. “There’re some lines you simply don’t cross and putting the person you claim to love in danger without any warning, willfully risking their life… I would never do that, neither to Jeff today, nor to Jack before that. And I don’t think you would either, Mac.”

Then, in a pointed, though not unkind voice, she asks him, “Knowing what you know now, can you honestly say the same thing about Nikki?”

Mac’s frown deepens and he drops his eyes.

Sarah reaches out to squeeze his shoulder. “Whatever happens next, it’s up to you two and none of my business, I know, just… Be careful, alright? One bullet through the chest is more than enough, I think.”

Then, with a little smile and a nod of goodbye, she leaves.

Mac stands there, frowning, for a very long time.


	33. The One Where Jack’s Scarily Devoted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coda to episode 107. Jack makes a problem go away.

He asks Sarah for the intel, in confidence, no need for anyone to know about this. Especially Mac. Because Mac wouldn’t approve.

When Sarah hands him the dossier, in a bar downtown, somewhere they never go, she frowns a little and asks in a soft, concerned voice, “What are you up to, Jack?”

He looks her straight in the eyes and he gives her a straight answer. “You don’t wanna know.”

When Joaquin Sancola, the infamous El Noche, sits down opposite him in the prison visiting room, smirking at him through the bulletproof glass, Jack doesn’t move a muscle. His hot fury cooled down to icy determination. He’s not here to vent his rage. He’s here to make a problem go away. The Jack Dalton way.

“I remember you,” Sancola says as they both pick up the phone receiver from the hook on the wall. “You were with the blond guy,  _MacGyver_. You came to his rescue.” His smirk widens. “How is he, by the way? Still alive?”

Jack doesn’t rise to the bait. He faced bigger fish than El Noche in his day. “I want you to call off your dogs, revoke the price you put on MacGyver’s head.”

Amused, Sancola leans forward. “And why would I do that, Mr. Fed? I’m in here for life, there’s nothing you can threaten me with to make me do that.”

In response and not looking away, Jack reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a photograph that he then slaps against the glass dividing the visitors from the inmates. Sancola glances at it - and his grin disappears.

“ _This_ is Pedro Ramirez, your nephew,” Jack says in a steady voice. “He’s good kid with a college degree, a doctor. You made sure he stayed out of the family business, that he was safe and protected.”

Sancola turns his eyes to Jack. His amusement is gone, replaced with ice cold rage.

“You told MacGyver you had many friends who would do you a favor and kill him even if you couldn’t pay, what with your funds seized,” Jack continues. “You may have many friends, Joaquin, but I bet you have even more enemies….”

He lets his words hang in the air, the threat unspoken but  _very clear_.

“You wouldn’t dare, Fed!” Sancola growls.

Jack stares at him, unblinking, letting Sancola see his resolve, the darkness he hides so deep and never shows to anyone, especially his loved ones. “ _Try me_!”

They stare at each other for a very long time, neither backing down, the picture of Pedro still in Jack’s hand, still pressed against the glass partition.

In the end, Sancola says, “You would spill innocent blood, Fed?”

“To protect MacGyver? In a  _heartbeat_ ,” Jack replies without hesitation, the tone of his voice leaving no doubt that he means every word.

And he does. His conscience would plague him for the rest of his life, for sure, but if it came down to it, he would do it. To keep Mac safe, he would do  _anything_. Sometimes, the depth of his devotion to that kid scares even him.

Sancola narrows his eyes. “Fine. I’ll call off my friends. Your MacGyver will be safe - from me, at least.” Then he leans even closer and growls into the phone receiver, “But you, you should watch your back from now on, Fed. Because I’ll make you pay for this!”

Jack stares at him a moment longer, then he says, “Do your best, Joaquin.”

Then he hangs up and leaves. He got what he came for.


	34. The One Where Bozer Gets It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from episode 212. Until now, Bozer never truly got it. That Mac was a soldier. That he was in Afghanistan. That he disarmed bombs.

Sitting on the curb with his legs outstretched and his hands in his lap, Bozer stares at his house across the street filled with people and emergency vehicles. The dawn’s fast approaching and he hopes that any moment now, the front door will open and Mac and Jack will walk out, Mac having defused the bomb.

“You okay, Bozer?” Matty asks in a concerned voice as she walks up to him.

“Yeah,” he replies, glancing at her, then going back to watching his home. With a sigh, he shakes his head. “It’s just, all this” –he waves his hand at the house– “it made it real, you know?”

She furrows her brow a little. “What?”

“Mac and the army, what he did in Afghanistan, all of it,” Bozer explains. “I mean, I knew Mac was bomb squad, of course. But there’s knowing and then there’s  _knowing_. And until now, that knowledge was…  _abstract_ , very…  _out there_. It was like knowing that the earth turns around the sun. Disconnected from our lives.”

Matty nods. “And this brought it home.”

He turns to her and nods, too. “Yeah. While we were searching for the second bomb, Charlie talked about Kabul, about what The Ghost did over there, and I guess in that moment, it really clicked. My best friend was in  _Afghanistan_. My best friend  _disarmed bombs_. In a  _war zone_. He did this “–he waves at his house again– “every day back then,  _under fire_. I just… I never truly  _got_ it before.”

“Mac doesn’t talk about his army days, huh?” Matty asks.

Bozer shakes his head. “Not really, no. He doesn’t shut you down when you ask. He doesn’t become all… _closed off_. He tells you what you want to know readily enough. But he never talks about it on his own. That’s why it always felt like this whole thing, his being a soldier, like it happened to someone else, you know?”

“Yeah, I do,” Matty replies. “Most of us do it, Bozer. We do ugly things out there, so when we return home, we put those things in a box and lock them away and we cling to the pieces of normalcy we have left. For Mac, that connection to…  _normal_ was you. He didn’t want to bring that ugliness back home to you. He didn’t want you worried.”

Sighing, Bozer says, “Yeah. He does that a lot. You don’t really notice until you get to know him  _real well_ , only then you realize that he keeps a lot of himself to himself. He’s been like that ever since his dad left. It changed him.”

Something flickers through Matty’s eyes, there and gone again. It must’ve been a shadow, a trick of light, because it doesn’t happen again. Silence settles over them for a moment.

Then Bozer asks very quietly, “They’ll be okay, right?” thinking of the bomb and the bomber and all the things that still feel  _too big_  for him, even after almost a year in the spy business. It’s something he doesn’t talk about to anyone, not to Leanna, not even to Mac, come to think of it. Maybe it does come with the job description,  _secrecy_.

Matty reaches out and squeezes his arm firmly. “I’m sure of it. This  _is_ Mac’s thing, after all.”

And Bozer nods, grateful for the reassurance.

And they’re okay, Mac and Jack.


	35. The One In the Sandbox

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last day of Jack’s tour is remarkably peaceful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from ep 212. I know I already wrote a similar one but it wouldn’t leave me alone, this bunny. Thus, a ficlet happened.

It’s their last ride out together, tomorrow Jack’s going back home. Two months ago, they couldn’t wait to part ways and good riddance. Now, as they drive down a dusty Afghan road, the atmosphere in their Humvee is almost…  _melancholy_. **  
**

Finally, knowing this might be his last chance to say something, Mac tells Jack quietly, “I should’ve said something sooner, but… I’m sorry. About going through your stuff the day we first met. I noticed the missing forward assist on your rifle and–” He pauses and shakes his head, glancing at Jack. “I just wanted to help, really, but I shouldn’t have done that.”

Sighing, Jack wrinkles his nose a little and says, “Yeah, about that. The truth is, I was having some issues with my rifle back then, with the bolt carrier, and… “ He throws Mac a quick look, then goes back to staring out through the windshield at the setting sun and the winding road outside. “So I was rather, uh,  _touchy_ about that subject and I might’ve kind of, maybe overreacted a little.”

Mac looks at him and smiles. “At least it made our first meeting unforgettable, right?”

Jack laughs softly. “That it did, hoss.”

“I’m really glad you made it through your tour alright, Jack,” Mac says, making sure that Jack knows he means it.

Jack studiously stares straight ahead for a moment, then he clears his throat. “Yeah, well,” he replies in a thick, rather raspy voice, “you didn’t make it easy, that’s for sure. You’re like a trouble magnet or something, kid.”

Smiling again, Mac says, “I’ll have to be much more careful, watching my back, now that you’re not gonna be here to do it for me.”

There’s a pause, then Jack grumbles, looking at Mac and then quickly away again, “Yeah. Uh, whoever they’ll assign to be your new overwatch, I’m sure they’re gonna be good.”

Mac turns towards the passenger side window. “I’m sure you’re right,” he agrees quietly.

Jack shifts in his seat. “Not as good as me, of course,” he throws in a joke to lighten up the mood.

Still staring out of the window, Mac responds, “Nobody’s as good as you, Jack.” A simple, honest answer.

Shifting again, Jack  _hmms_ , frowning a little. He rests his elbow on the open window and presses his fist to his mouth, his other hand guiding the steering wheel with easy practice. Then, after a moment, he turns to Mac. “You are gonna be careful, right? You won’t do anything stupid. Right?”

Mac looks at him and his smile widens. “You know me, Jack. I’m  _always_ careful.”

Jack stares at him for a moment, the road now a long, empty stretch ahead of them, then he  _hmms_ again and turns away, his gloves creaking softly as he clenches his hands tight. “Yeah,” he says quietly, “I know you…”

They drive like that for a long while, in a contemplative silence, headed back to the base, watching the sun slip below the horizon. Their ride is almost over now and for once, no new orders come in. For once, nothing bad happens. The last day of Jack’s tour comes to a peaceful end.

Tomorrow, he’s going home.


	36. The One Where James Goes Visit Patty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coda to ep 117. This is the second time that Patricia Thornton tried to take out James’ son. That merits a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on the discussion we had some days ago on Tumblr about James and his anger issues.

When James MacGyver enters the interrogation room, Patricia Thornton doesn’t even blink. Not that he expected her to. She’s as reserved, as icy as ever, prison didn’t change that. Nothing ever will, James guesses.

The door clangs shut behind him and he walks up to the table to which Thornton’s chained. He pulls out the chair, its metal legs scraping against the concrete floor, and sits down. And then they sit like that, staring at each other, James in his casual wear, Thornton in prison orange. The color doesn’t suit her.

“I think you know why I’m here,” James says. Again, he doesn’t expect her to answer and again, she doesn’t. He’s just going through the motions, waiting, waiting,  _waiting_ …

James glances up at the camera mounted in the upper right corner of the interrogation room, covering the table. The blinking red light goes dark as the surveillance system short circuits.  _What a well placed foil wrapper can do…_

They’re now truly alone. James has thirty seconds before the guard comes to check on them.

He gets up and walks around the table, to Thornton’s side, there he leans with his left hand on the table, and bending low, leaning closer to her, he tells her in an icy cold and deadly serious voice, “I entrusted you with my son, Patty, and you betrayed that trust. You turned traitor. And then you made it  _personal_ \- you tried to take Angus out, not once but twice now. You put him on Murdoc’s radar and you set a trap for him in Amsterdam.”

Finally, she turns to look at him. Her face’s expressionless, her eyes unreadable. She doesn’t still say anything. James doesn’t need her to say anything. He’s not here to question her, he’s here to make a point.

Lightning fast, he grabs her by the hair and slams her head against the table, holding her down, and as she gasps softly, he leans even closer and whispers into her ear, “I would  _discourage_ you from trying it a third time. If anything happens to my son and I find out you had a hand in it, I’ll make you pay, Patty. And you know me well enough to realize I’m not bluffing.”

Then James lets her go - he’s not here to physically hurt or intimidate her, he doesn’t have to, Thornton knows very well what he’s capable of - and walks around the table, back to his chair to sit down again. Slowly, Thornton straightens up. Her hair’s disheveled, there’s a red spot high on her right cheek and she’s glaring daggers but she’s still keeping her mouth shut. James knows she will never talk about her involvement with the Organization. Or about  _this_ little encounter.

A second later, there’s a rap on the door and one of the guards steps in. “Sorry to interrupt, sir, but it seems the surveillance system in this room malfunctioned. We’ll have to move you to another interrogation room.”

James turns to the man and smiles. “No need, son. I just wanted to clear up something with Miss Thornton. I’m done now.” He gets up and he gives the former director of DXS and the Phoenix Foundation a long, hard look. “I’ll be seeing you, Patty.”

Then he turns and leaves the room.

Thornton silently watches him go.


	37. The One Where They Wait and Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from 223. Mac and Jack in an outdoor café.

They’re sitting at a little table in an outdoor café - Mac in a rattan chair with his hands clasped together on the table in front of him, Jack opposite him, sprawled and with his feet propped up on another chair - waiting for Oversight. Who took off, saying he needed to take care of something,  _alone_.  _Joy_.

“How are you holding up?” Jack asks softly, looking over at Mac.

Mac shakes his head. “It’s…  _different_ than I thought it would be, my reunion with my dad. I don’t know  _what_ I expected but it wasn’t  _this_.”

“Yeah, I feel you,” Jack agrees. “The fact that your old man’s Oversight…”

Sighing, Mac says, “It’s not just that. If he simply happened to be my boss, if it were just some-some  _coincidence_ , it would be one thing. But this…” He looks at Jack. “My grandfather, he knew where my dad was, the whole time. He kept him informed about me. It was my dad’s doing that were were paired up, back in Afghanistan. His doing that I ended up working for DXS. He’s been manipulating my every move since I was a kid and my grandfather, Matty… they  _helped_ him.”

Jack just watches him quietly, not sure what to say to that. What  _can_ you say to something like that?  _Sorry your father treated you like a pawn your whole life?_

“You know,” Mac continues, this time in a sheepish, embarrassed tone of voice, “when you caught up with us, back there, on the road… for a moment I thought you’ve been a part of the whole thing, too. That you knew, too.”

When Jack frowns, Mac hastens to add, “I’m sorry, I just… I didn’t know who I could trust anymore, if there actually was anyone in my corner,  _anyone at all_.”

Jack’s face softens, and dropping his feet to the ground, he leans closer. “Hoss, I’ll  _always_ be in your corner,  _always_. I would  _never_ keep secrets from you.”

Mac glances at him with a small smile. “You still haven’t told me what went down between you and Matty,” he points out.

“Cute,” Jack replies, twisting his mouth in mock aggravation. But then he turns serious again. “We all have things we prefer to keep to ourselves, Mac, it’s just how it is. But I would never,  _ever_ lie to you about anything that concerns you, your life or your safety. You have to know that.”

Mac’s smile turns from mischievous to fond. “Yeah, I know that, Jack, I know. Whatever happens, I still have you, right?”

Jack grins, amused. “It sounds  _so weird_ when you say it like that, out loud, but… yeah, you do, kid.”

And then James returns with a map, already planning the theft of horses and a raid on a cartel stronghold, and Mac and Jack get up to follow his lead.


	38. The One With the Debt That Can’t Be Settled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a short based on all the SPOILERS (!!!) and BTS pics and vids from episodes 301 & 302 we’ve seen so far. Wild speculations on my part.

She watches them across the sun-dappled graveyard, Mac and Jack, as they stand by the grave, talking softly. Jack’s rubbing Mac’s back gently, and when Mac turns to him and nods, Jack pulls him into a bear hug, holding on till Mac returns it and leans into him for a moment.

Then, as they separate, Mac smiles at Jack a little in reassurance, and with a last comforting squeeze of Mac’s shoulder, Jack turns and heads away, towards where Matty’s standing in the shade of a big oak tree, leaving Mac at his father’s grave alone for the moment.

“How is he?” Matty asks in concern when Jack joins her.

Jack just shrugs as if the answer should be obvious. And it is, Matty guesses.

“And how are  _you two_?” she asks. They seem okay but if they’re not, then she needs to know. And make some changes in her team.

Jack sighs. “We’re good,  _really_ good. And that’s the problem.”

She frowns. “That’s a  _problem_?”

Looking back at Mac, Jack says quietly, “Yeah, ‘cause he doesn’t blame me for what happened. He doesn’t blame me  _at all_. He blames  _himself_. If only he was smarter, faster,  _something…_ his father would be alive.”

Matty’s frown deepens. “That’s bull,” she states harshly.

Jack shakes his head, still not looking away from Mac. “ _I_ know that and  _you_ know that, but  _he_ doesn’t. And I’m afraid he’s going to do something  _very_ stupid  _very_ soon.”

“Then don’t let him out of your sight!” Matty orders pointedly. “We already lost his father. He would kick all our asses from beyond the grave if he let something happen to his son, too!”

This time, Jack glances down at her. “Believe me, I  _don’t_ plan on letting him out of my sight. If he complained about my overprotectiveness so far, he ain’t seen nothing yet! I thought I had a big debt to settle before but–”

He shakes his head and when he looks back at Mac again, he has to blink and swallow hard several times before he’s able to continue. “He saved my life - at the expense of his dad’s, Matty. His father’s  _dead_ because Mac chose to save  _me_ instead of  _him_... How do you make something like that  _alright_ again?”

Matty turns to look at Mac who cuts a very lonely figure standing there, by the grave of the only blood relative he had left. She doesn’t reply. There’s no good response to that.


	39. The One With No Beginning and No End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack has a family now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh. I don’t know what this is. I was playing Bejeweled on my phone when this scene popped up in my head. Ergo *points*

“What are you doing?” Jack shouts when Mac slams the door shut, locking Jack out of the facility - inside which the timer on a big bad bomb keeps ticking down. 

“I’ll handle this one on my own,” Mac states, staring at him through the little window with bulletproof glass set high into the several inch thick security door.

Jack pauses, puzzled, because that wasn’t the plan, then his eyes widen with horror. “You-you don’t think you can disarm it,” he says as it dawns on him.

Mac’s pained little smile is his only answer.

Jack pounds his fist on the steel door. “Don’t do this, Mac! We agreed! We  _agreed_ : if we die, we die  _together_! That’s how it works,” he yells, angry and afraid.

But Mac just shakes his head. “Not anymore, Jack. Things changed.”

_This can’t be happening_. “Changed how? We’re still a team!”

Slowly, Mac starts backing away from the door, down the long, narrow, harshly lit corridor painted stark white. “You have Riley now, Jack. And Diane, you two are patching things up again. I can’t let you die. You have a  _family_ now.”

“ _You_ are my family, you idiot!” Jack roars, heart clenched with dread, as he kicks the door and bruises his fists on its smooth, cold surface.

But Mac just shakes his head and with a soft, “Sorry,” he turns and runs, headed directly for the bomb at the center of the facility.

And Jack can only scream after him in impotent fear, “Mac! Come back here! Don’t you do this.  _Mac_ …!”


	40. The One With S. A. M.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like father, like daughter.

He comes to visit her, James MacGyver does. He actually comes to the hospital, risking his cover, everything he’s been working on for years - just to check up on her. Sam guesses she should be flattered by it,  _happy_.

She’s  _not_.

And then, on his way out - he doesn’t stay long, he never does - he says, like it’s an afterthought, “You told them you had a sister…” 

Lying in her hospital bed, attached to tubes and IV bags, wires and monitors after having been shot by the team’s pet psychopath for reasons she still can’t fathom, Sam shrugs almost imperceptibly. “I had to tell them  _something_ , they were getting curious.” Then she adds dryly, “It’s not like I could tell them the truth.”

James stiffens. “We had a deal, Sara,” he reminds her rather harshly. “I let you in, with Director Webber’s knowledge and approval - but you promised to keep the truth to yourself.”

She almost snorts.  _Typical._ “Don’t worry. Unlike  _some_ people,” she says very pointedly, “I  _always_ keep my promises.”

He has the good grace to look chastised. “For what it’s worth, I really  _am_ glad you’re going to be okay,” he tells her emphatically.

After staring at him for a moment, Sam replies, “And for what it’s worth, I now understand why  _he_ has always been your favorite…  _father_.”

James almost winces, he almost says something. He almost tries to convince her that he loves both his children, her  _and_ Mac, equally. Fortunately, he doesn’t. Sam’s an exceptional interrogator - and James MacGyver is no fool.

When he then leaves, Sara Amelia MacGyver - S. A. M., her friends always call her  _Sam_ \- lies back, thinking. She’s done what she came here to do - she got to know her little brother, Angus (though she never expected to like him, that came as a surprise) - and now it’s time to leave again. She never planned on staying long, after all. 

Like father, like daughter. What a painful thought.


	41. The One With Pepé Le Pew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short coda to episode 204 (will this episode ever stop inspiring me?). Mac’s third favorite meal, an icebox full of beer… and Pepé Le Pew.

He finds Mac on the back porch, staring out across the city,  _brooding_. Just like he suspected.

“Hey!” Jack calls out and pretends not to notice the way Mac jerks, all startled.

Mac turns around and frowns. “Jack, what are you doing here? I thought you went home.”

Jack sets his cargo down on the wooden table. “I did. I took a shower, then I went out again. I came over here. With a stop or two along the way.”

Mac’s frown deepens. “But…  _why_? We just came back, so…”

Jack nods agreeably. “Yes, that we did. But I thought you might feel like eating something.” He pauses and eyes Mac suspiciously. “Did you eat anything  _at all_ since you came back from Paris?”

Then he waves his hand and starts unpacking. “Never mind that. I got your  _third_ favorite meal - it’s perfect for a ‘yay, we survived, yet again!’ celebration - and an icebox full of beer because I bet you your fridge’s still broken, am I right or am I right? And then this.” He pulls out a DVD and shows it to Mac.

Mac stares at it for a moment. “ _Pepé Le Pew_ …?” he reads slowly, not really getting it. And then it dawns on him. “Jack, I told you I was sorry about–”

Nodding again, Jack says, “Yes, yes, you did. And I  _graciously_ accepted your apology. But that doesn’t mean I won’t make you suffer for  _running off to Paris without telling me_! So, an evening of  _‘Zee Best of Zee Best’_ it is, my runaway friend, and it’s not up for discussion.”

Mac sighs and his shoulders slump, then he rubs his face tiredly. “Jack, I had a really rough 24 hours. I just want to go bed and–”

“Do what, exactly?” Jack jumps in. “Stare at the ceiling till dawn and then crawl in tomorrow, looking like death warmed over? No. For once, you will listen to ol’ Jack: go, take a shower,  _change_ \- uh, I didn’t want to bring it up, buddy, but you reek…”

Frowning again, Mac sniffs at his shirt self-consciously.

“Yeah, you really do. You crawled through the sewers in that outfit and one can’t  _not_ smell that on you. So, off with you,  _shoo,_ while I set it all up.” Jack makes a shooing gesture, not taking no for an answer.

And Mac goes, petulant and grumbling.

Two hours later, after they eat their food and drink their beer and watch Pepé’s amorous adventures three times in a row - well, it  _was_ the only DVD they had in stock - Jack looks to the side and finds Mac curled up in the corner of the couch, fast asleep… and he smiles.

Mission accomplished.


	42. The One With the Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s Mac’s birthday. He forgets. Set in season 2.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just something I threw together on the spot for Lucas Till’s b-day!

He finds them on the back porch, waiting for him.

“Uhm,” Mac says, frowning a little as he steps onto the wooden deck overlooking the brightly lit city of Los Angeles, “did I forget we were supposed to meet here… or  _something_?”

Not so long ago, this would’ve been a joke, a  _jab_ at having been accosted so unexpectedly, but lately, Mac’s been burning the candle at both ends and, well, there’s a distinct possibility that he actually  _forgot_. It’s an unsettling thought.

Jack gets up. “No, but since it’s your birthday…”

_It is?_ Mac thinks, surprised.

“Last year, we made a big deal out of it but,” Bozer shrugs awkwardly, “with everything that’s going on with your dad and Matty…” He trails off.

“We thought that something small and intimate might be better this year,” Riley finishes for him.

Jack glances at her. “Yeah, you know, just us - the people you know you can always count on.” He looks meaningfully at Mac and adds, “Your  _family_.”

Mac stares at them for a moment, not knowing what to say. His throat closes off and his eyes sting a little. Because Jack’s right: no matter what’s really going on with his father, no matter Matty’s lies, these three people,  _they_ are his family.

“Thanks,” he croaks out thickly.

They all nod and grin.

“And now,” Jack says as he takes a frosted cupcake from Bozer - homemade, Mac knows - and sets its single candle alight, “make a wish.”

And when Mac blows out the tiny flame, he begs silently,  _Please,_ please _, just_ _let me keep_ them _…_


	43. The One Where Mac and Jack Leave Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set between episodes 223 & 301\. Or, how I wish it would go down, the plot with Jack in trouble… Spoilers for 301!

****

They’re fixing the roof of one of the homes in the village, he and Jack, when the car comes rumbling down the dusty road and stops not far away. They pause to look, not expecting any trouble, not expecting this to be of any interest to them - but it turns out it is, to Jack in particular.

With a soft, “What the hell?” Jack sets his hammer aside and climbs down to meet the driver who steps out of the car. The tall, dusky-skinned man is looking around with a frown - of the official kind.

Mac watches as Jack approaches the guy and they shake hands warily, talking in quiet tones. Mac can’t hear what they’re saying but from the way Jack’s back tenses up, he knows that trouble found them, even here, in this remote village in the heart of Nigeria. Slowly, Mac climbs down as well.

When he steps off the ladder, Jack’s already on his way back with his face set, brows furrowed and lips pinched in an unhappy expression.

“Jack?” Mac asks softly, looking over his friend’s shoulder at the other man who climbs back into his car, letting the engine purr. “What is it?”

Jack sighs, rubbing his forehead. “I gotta go, hoss.”

That sets all the alarm in Mac’s mind ringing. “Go? Go  _where_?” 

They left the spy business together several months ago, after James MacGyver’s, Mac’s father’s, lies and machinations came out. And they didn’t plan on going back, ever. They  _still_ don’t. Their life’s here now, helping these people,  _rebuilding_.

Jack grimaces. “It’s better you don’t know,” he says. “That guy” –he points with his thumb over his shoulder, at the car still waiting a short distance away– “he’s an, uh,  _acquaintance_ of mine. From my CIA days. I…  _owe_ him. And he came to collect.”

Mac doesn’t like it but… alright, he understands debts. “Fine, then let’s go.”

But Jack shakes his head. “No, just me.”

Now Mac frowns deeply because  _this_ he doesn’t like  _at all_. If they go, then they go  _together_ , like always. “Jack…”

“Look,” Jack cuts him off gently, “you don’t like it, I get that. I don’t like it either,  _believe_ you me. I would rather punch that bastard in the kisser than actually help him out but… I  _do_ owe him.” He sighs. “It’ll be only for a couple of days, a  _week_ tops. Then I’m coming back.

“Besides,” he adds, grinning, “you can’t leave that girl of yours, can you?” He punches Mac playfully in the shoulder. “She might find herself a new beau now that you look like  _Grizzly Adams_.”

Before Mac can catch himself, he self-consciously tugs at his beard in reaction to Jack’s teasing. When he realizes what he’s doing, he drops his hand quickly.

There’s a loud honk from behind Jack then the man behind the steering wheel revs the engine impatiently. Jack glares at him over his shoulder.

“Alright…” Mac agrees reluctantly. “But… promise me to be careful, okay?”

Jack grins at him. “Scout’s honor. I’ll be back before you know it, buddy!”

A week later, James MacGyver’s car comes to a slow stop in front of the house Mac’s been sharing with Jack since they came here, and when Mac comes out to greet him, he feels more annoyed than worried by seeing his dad there. James’ very first words sent a cold shiver down his spine, though.

“Dalton’s in trouble, Angus, and he really needs your help.”


End file.
